'^C^ 


LIBRARY 

OF  THE 

University  of  California. 

Class 

I 


T  U  R  K  E  Y 

THE   AWAKEMXG   OF   TURKEY 
THE   TURKISH   REVOLUTION   OF  1908 


E.  F    KNIGHT 


Volume  XXI 


PRESERVATION 
30PY  ADDED 
DRIQIf^AL  TO  BE 
RETAINED 


:T3  01995 


Copyright,  1910 
J.    B.    MILLET    CO. 


THK  •  IM  IMI'IMN  .  PRESS 
NORUIXJD  .  MASS  .  L  .  S  •  A 


CONTENTS 

CHAPTER  PAG^ 

Editorial  Note ix 

I    The  Turkish  People 1 

II    Atrocities 15 

III  Early  Reformers 25 

IV  The  Spread  of  Corruption 35 

V    The  Spread  of  Education 54 

VI  The  Rise  of  the  Young  Turks     ....  64 

VII    Discontent  in  the  Army 87 

VIII  The  Central  Committee       ......  101 

IX    How  THE  Revolution  Began 118 

X    The  Standard  of  Revolt 133 

XI  The  Insurrection  in  Bulgaria      ....  152 

XII    The  Palace  and  the  Greeks 169 

XIII  A  Bloodless  Victory 185 

XIV  The  Committee's  Ultimatum 198 

XV    After  the  Revolution 207 

XVI    European  Assistance 222 

XVII     Mutinous  Palace  Guards 238 

XVIII    Preparing  for  Self-Rule 249 

XIX    A  Strong  Army  Needed 261 

XX    The  Opening  of  Parliament 281 

XXI    The  New  Sultan 297 

Index 321 


ILLUSTRATIONS 

Page 

The  Entrance  to  the  Black  Sea         ....     Frontispiece 
Imperial  Palace  of  the  Sweet  Waters  of  Asia     .       •  64 

Turkish  Market-woman  in  Street  Dress         .       .       .       .       112 

View  of  Constantinople 128 

Chateau  of  Asia 224 

View  of  Scutari 272 


vu 


EDITORIAL    NOTE 

FROM  the  land  of  the  Turks  —  Turkestan  in  Cen- 
tral Asia  —  there  descended  beginning  in  a.d.  800 
a  series  of  hordes  and  armies  which  overran  and 
gradually  took  possession  of  that  portion  of  South-Eastern 
Europe  and  Western  Asia  once  known  as  Turkey.  After 
five  hundred  years  Mohammed  II  seized  upon  Constanti- 
nople, and  that  city  became  the  capital  of  the  Turkish 
Empire;  —  for  the  next  two  hundred  years  the  dominion 
spread  until  it  became  an  immense  and  important  world- 
power.  Then  began  a  period  of  decline;  and  vice  and 
prodigality  in  harem  and  seragho  brought  about  disruption 
and  war.  Russia  saw  her  opportunity  to  extend  her  bor- 
ders towards  the  sea  —  and  went  on  gaining  Turkish 
territory  from  early  in  the  18th  until  the  middle  of  the 
19th  century  when  the  Crimean  war  crippled  her  power 
in  that  corner  of  Europe.  But  Turkey  could  not  hold  the 
heterogeneous  populations  of  her  European  provinces. 
Insurrection  after  insurrection  broke  out  and  one  by  one 
she  lost  many  of  the  more  important  of  them.  She  became 
bankrupt  and  a  concert  of  the  European  Powers  pro- 
posed and  partially  carried  out  a  scheme  for  her  reform. 
But  she  proved  stubborn  and  went  to  war  with  Russia 
in  1877-1878;  this  ended  disastrously  for  her  and 
more  territory  was  lost.  In  1897,  came  the  war  with 
Greece  in  which  she  was  successful.  In  recent  years 
after  many  vicissitudes  the  spread  of  the  great  awakening 


EDITORIAL    NOTE 

of  the  people  of  Oriental  lands  has  reached  Turkey,  and 
the  story  of  the  newer  political  and  social  life  in  that 
country  is  related  in  this  volume  in  full  and  complete 
detail,  from  its  inception  until  the  famous  Revolution 
of  1908. 

No  one  is  better  qualified  to  tell  this  story  than  Edward 
F.  Knight,  who  as  a  noted  correspondent  for  one  of  the 
leading  papers  of  London  has  seen  service  in  all  the  wars 
since  1895,  his  work  having  taken  him  to  South  America, 
Africa,  and  Asia.  In  1908,  he  was  specially  commissioned 
to  visit  Turkey  to  study  the  conditions  of  the  recent 
revolution,  and  this  book  is  the  result  of  his  exliaustive 
study. 

The  important  position  which  Turkey  occupies  on  the 
highway  to  the  Farther  East  from  Europe  has  made 
it  the  subject  of  continuous  political  intrigue  by  the 
nations  of  that  continent.  Its  interesting  and  romantic 
people  and  their  despotic  government;  its  natural  prod- 
ucts, some  of  them  unique;  its  picturesque  and  poetical 
language  and  literature,  are  full  of  peculiar  and  absorb- 
ing interest,  and  no  one  who  wishes  to  keep  abreast  of 
the  great  world  movements  of  our  time  can  afford  to 
neglect  this  stirring  work. 

Charles  Welsh. 


TURKEY 


CHAPTER  I 

THE  TURKISH  PEOPLE 

TURKEY,  once  so  vast  and  powerful,  has  been 
undergoing  a  gradual  dismemberment  for  the 
last  two  centuries.  Possession  after  pos- 
session has  been  wrested  from  her  in  Europe,  Asia, 
and  Africa.  On  the  mainland  of  Europe,  having 
lost  Greece,  Bulgaria,  Roumania,  Servia,  Bosnia, 
Croatia,  and  Herzegovina,  as  well  as  those  regions  on 
the  northern  shores  of  the  Black  Sea  (once  a  Turk- 
ish lake)  which  now  form  part  of  Southern  Russia, 
Turkey  is  left  with  but  a  narrow  strip  of  territory 
stretching  across  the  centre  of  the  Balkan  Penin- 
sula from  the  Black  Sea  to  the  Adriatic. 

The  despotic  system  of  government  in  Turkey 
worked  well  enough  so  long  as  she  was  a  conquering 
and  expanding  nation;  but  so  soon  as  she  ceased  to 
be  this,  and  was  hemmed  in  by  Christian  Powers 
strong  enough  to  check  her  advance,  the  system, 
being  incompatible  with  progress,  failed  to  hold  the 
Empire  together  and  disintegration  set  in.  The 
internal  disorders  caused  by  the  evils  of  her  admin- 
istration and  the  cupidity  and  treachery  of  her  pow- 
erful European  neighbours  threatened  Turkey  with 
1 


TURKEY 

extinction.  Russia  and  Austria  waged  successful 
wars  against  her  and  possessed  themselves  of  her 
frontier  provinces,  and  at  the  same  time  the  dis- 
affected Christian  populations  of  European  Turkey 
were  encouraged  to  rise  and  gain  their  indepen- 
dence. So  it  came  about  that  Greece,  Bulgaria,  and 
other  kingdoms  and  principalities  were  carved  out  of 
Turke3%  and  up  to  within  a  few  months  ago  Chris- 
tian peoples  within  and  without  her  frontiers  were 
quarrelling  over  a  further  projected  act  of  spoliation 
that  would  indeed  have  been  for  Turkey  the  begin- 
ning of  the  end  —  the  partition  of  Macedonia. 

For  the  oppression,  corruption,  and  incompetence 
that  characterised  their  government  the  Turkish 
people  themselves  were  held  responsible  by  a  large 
section  of  public  opinion  in  Western  Europe.  There 
is  a  saying  to  the  effect  that  a  nation  has  the  gov- 
ernment which  it  deserves,  and  this  may  be  true  if 
a  nation  is  free  to  work  out  its  own  salvation.  But 
in  the  case  of  Turkey  the  people  were  allowed 
no  chance  of  obtaining  the  government  which  they 
deserved;  for  it  was  to  the  interest  of  Turkey's 
powerful  enemies  to  conserve  the  evils  of  the  des- 
potic rule,  and  whenever  the  Turks  made  an  effort 
to  put  their  house  in  order  some  Christian  Power, 
fearing  lest  a  reformed  Turkey  might  prove  a  strong 
Turkey,  fell  upon  her  with  armed  force  or  stood  in 
the  way  of  the  projected  changes.  Moreover,  the 
Powers  that  were  bent  upon  self -aggrandisement  at 
Turkey's  expense  saw  to  it  that  there  should  be  no 
peace  within  her   borders    and   stirred   up   trouble. 


THE    TURKISH    PEOPLE 

exciting  the  Christian  peasants  to  rise,  and  foment- 
ing disturbances  that  might  serve  as  pretexts  for  a 
pohcy  of  intervention  and  annexation.  No  methods 
were  too  unscrupulous  for  the  Powers  in  question. 
For  example,  among  many  other  agents  provocateurs 
was  a  certain  Dervish  who,  some  years  ago,  as  the 
paid  secret  agent  of  Russia,  acting  under  instruc- 
tions, preached  a  holy  war  against  giaours  in  Asia 
Minor  and  excited  the  Mussulman  population  to 
attack  the  Christian  inhabitants.  One  could  quote 
many  other  stories  to  illustrate  the  treachery  of 
Turkey's  enemies  and  the  unfair  treatment  which 
has  been  accorded  to  her. 

And  so  Turkey,  by  her  own  bad  government  and 
by  the  machinations  of  those  who  lusted  after  the 
rich  possessions  that  were  still  left  to  her,  was  being 
steadily  dragged  down  to  her  ruin.  Even  her  best 
friends  despaired  of  her  regeneration;  for  reform 
from  without  administered  by  the  Powers  would  mean 
the  loss  of  her  independence,  while  reform  from  within 
seemed  impossible  of  attainment.  Turkey  appeared 
to  be  destined  to  early  effacement  from  the  map  of 
Europe,  when,  lo!  of  a  sudden,  the  Turks  themselves 
—  all  that  was  best  and  most  patriotic  of  the  man- 
hood of  the  Empire  —  came  boldly  forward  to  make 
a  desperate  last  stand  in  the  defence  of  the  integrity 
of  their  beloved  fatherland.  The  "Young  Turks" 
threw  off  the  despotism  that  had  all  but  destroyed 
their  country  and  seized  the  reins  of  government, 
displaying  a  firmness,  justice,  wisdom,  and  modera- 
tion in  their  almost  bloodless  revolution  that  have 
3 


TURKEY 

won  for  them  the  admiration  of  all  honest  men 
throughout  the  civilised  world.  It  looks  very  much 
as  if  these  men  are  about  to  prove  to  the  world  that 
reform  can  come  from  within  even  in  Turkey,  pro- 
vided that  the  Turks  are  now  given  the  chance  which 
they  have  never  had  before,  and  greedy  foes  are  not 
permitted  to  frustrate  the  aspirations  of  a  people 
freed  at  last. 

Those  who  know  and  therefore  like  and  respect 
the  Turkish  people  rejoice  that  the  ancient  friend- 
ship between  England  and  Turkey  has  been  restored, 
and  that  at  last  the  English  people  are  beginning  to 
realise  the  injustice  that  a  large  section  of  public 
opinion  has  done  to  a  noble  race,  for  over  thirty 
years.  There  was  a  time  when  they  understood  the 
Turks  better.  During  the  Crimean  war  the  British 
officers  had  the  opportunity  of  acquiring  an  intimate 
knowledge  of  their  allies;  many  firm  friendships  were 
then  made  which  were  kept  up  through  life,  and  so 
large  and  influential  were  the  relations  thus  brought 
about  between  the  gentlemen  of  the  two  countries 
that  they  directed  English  diplomacy  in  Turkish 
affairs  for  many  years.  It  may  seem,  and  it  ought 
to  be,  unnecessary  to  preface  this  little  work  with 
an  explanation  of  what  manner  of  men  these  Turks 
are;  but  so  grossly  have  they  been  misrepresented, 
and  so  widespread  has  been  the  misconception  con- 
cerning them,  that  a  few  words  on  this  subject  may 
not  be  out  of  place. 

Five  and  a  half  centuries  have  passed  since  the 
Mussulman  Turks  —  a  Central- Asian  people  akin  to 
4 


THE    TURKISH    PEOPLE 

the  Mongols  —  having  seized  the  Asiatic  possessions 
of  the  decaying  Byzantine  Empire,  crossed  the  Bos- 
phorus  and,  extending  their  conquests,  established 
themselves  firmly  in  Europe.  It  is  possible  that  in 
Asia  Minor  peasants  of  pure  Turkish  blood  may  still 
be  found,  but  in  European  Turkey  —  that  "lumber 
room  of  many  races"  —  the  strong  and  noble  Turk- 
ish stock  has  been  so  largely  intermingled  with  a 
number  of  other  races  that  the  racial  characteristics 
of  the  Osmanli  have  practically  disappeared.  It  is 
more  rare  to  find  features  of  the  Mongolian  stamp 
among  the  modern  Turks  than  among  the  Christian 
peoples  over  whom  they  rule.  The  Bulgarians,  for 
example,  though  speaking  a  Slav  tongue  and  gener- 
ally considered  as  a  Slav  people,  often  have  the  flat 
faces,  the  projecting  cheek-bones,  the  small  oblique 
eyes,  that  betray  their  descent  from  the  nomads  of 
the  Asiatic  steppes. 

There  are  no  handsomer  people  in  Europe  than 
the  Turks,  for  here  the  crossing  of  many  virile 
breeds  has  resulted  in  the  development  of  a  very 
fine  race  of  men.  The  modern  Turk  is  a  Caucasian 
of  the  highest  type,  and  combines  in  himself  some 
of  the  best  qualities  of  the  East  and  West.  It  is 
true  that  some  of  his  Eastern  qualities  stand  in  the 
way  of  what  the  energetic  Western  world  calls  prog- 
ress. The  Turk  is  improvident  and  often  a  spend- 
thrift; he  is  a  fatalist,  enduring  patiently  whatever 
ill  fortune  or  suffering  fate  may  bring  him,  but  dis- 
playing an  indolent  indisposition  to  struggle  against 
destiny.  Dieu  aide  qui  s'aide  expresses  a  motive  for 
5 


TURKEY 

action  which  is  opposed  to  his  Moslem  fatahsm. 
But  difl&cult  though  he  may  be  to  rouse  to  effort, 
once  roused  he  displays  great  energy  and  stubborn- 
ness of  purpose,  as  has  been  recently  proved  to  the 
world  by  the  careful  preparation  and  determined 
carrying  through  of  the  Turkish  revolution.  At  any 
rate,  the  faults  of  the  Turks  are  for  the  most  part 
amiable  ones,  and  most  people  who  have  travelled 
in  the  Near  East  will  agree  with  an  authority  on 
the  politics  of  that  region,  who  replied  as  follows  to 
a  question  put  to  him  by  an  interviewer:  "The 
men  that  I  liked  best  among  all  that  I  met  in  the 
East  were  Turks.  In  some  respects  the  Turk  struck 
me  as  more  like  an  Englishman  and  more  like  a 
gentleman  than  any  of  the  other  races  except  the 
Maygars.  He  is  a  quiet,  manly  fellow,  with  great 
repose  and  charm  of  manner,  and  does  not  wear  his 
heart  on  his  sleeve.  Europeans  who  live  in  the 
country  look  on  the  Turk  as  an  honest  man  and  a 
man  of  his  word." 

It  must  be  remembered  that  the  corrupt  official- 
dom created  by  the  Palace,  which  had  a  degrading 
influence  on  everything  in  touch  with  it,  is  not  repre- 
sentative of  the  Turkish  people.  The  typical  Turk 
possesses  the  virtues  and  the  failings  of  a  conquering 
and  dominant  race.  He  is  courageous,  truthful,  and 
honest  amid  races  not  conspicuous  for  truthfulness 
or  honesty,  some  of  which  are  likewise  lacking  In 
courage.  The  Turk,  moreover,  is  shrewd  and  gifted 
with  common  sense,  and  he  Is  not  a  visionary,  as  are 
the  Arabs  and  some  other  peoples  holding  the  Mos- 
6 


THE    TURKISH    PEOPLE 

lem  faith.  He  has  not  the  quick  wits  of  some  Euro- 
pean peoples,  and  may  perhaps  be  described  as  being 
somewhat  stupid,  in  the  same  sense  that  the  Enghsh- 
man  is  stupid  in  the  eyes  of  a  neighbouring,  brighter 
race;  but  this  same  stupidity,  or  whatever  else  we 
may  call  it,  happily  has  preserved  the  Turk  from 
the  seeing  of  visions,  and  consequently  no  impos- 
sible ideals,  no  wild  dreams  for  the  reconstruction 
of  society,  have  led  his  practical  and  common-sense 
revolution  into  those  dreadful  roads  of  bloodshed  and 
anarchy  which  more  imaginative  nations,  shrieking 
liberty,  have  blindly  followed  to  tyrannies  more 
oppressive  than  the  worst  of  despotisms. 

Those  who  know  him  best  also  claim  that  the  Turk 
is  hospitable,  temperate,  devoid  of  meanness,  sincere 
in  his  friendships  —  once  he  is  your  friend  he  is 
always  your  friend  —  and,  though  his  enemies  have 
represented  him  as  very  much  the  reverse,  gentle 
and  humane.  Of  the  steadfastness  of  his  friendship 
I  have  had  experience.  When  a  Turk  is  your  friend 
you  can  implicitly  trust  him,  even  though  he  be, 
what  the  conditions  of  his  country  have  sometimes 
made  him,  a  murderous  outlaw.  I  have  had  friends 
among  Turkish  brigands  myself,  and  Sir  William 
Whittall,  who  knows  the  Turks  as  well  as  any  Eng- 
lishman can,  writes  in  the  following  sympathetic 
way  of  his  robber  friend  Redjeb:  "Peace  be  to  his 
ashes!  He  is  dead  now.  Brigand  or  no  brigand,  I 
had  a  sincere  admiration  for  the  man  as  a  man.  His 
faithfulness  was  like  unto  that  of  a  dog,  and  he  saved 
my  life  at  the  risk  of  his  own.  I  have  had  many 
7 


TURKEY 

incidents  with  brigands  in  Asia  Minor  during  my 
fifty  years  of  sport,  and  I  must  say  that  as  long  as 
they  were  Turks,  and  I  had  assisted  some  friends  or 
villages  of  theirs,  which  I  always  made  it  a  point  to 
do  when  I  frequented  the  wild  regions,  I  never  feared 
any  accidents;  and  though  I  might  often  have  been 
taken,  I  never  was.  I  would  not  like  to  trust  Chris- 
tian brigands  in  the  same  fashion." 

Gentleness  and  humanity  are  among  the  most 
marked  characteristics  of  the  Turk.  With  his  feroc- 
ity in  war  when  his  passions  are  roused  I  shall  deal 
later,  but  of  his  kindliness  and  charity  in  his  dealings 
with  his  fellow-men  there  can  be  no  doubt.  In  no 
European  country  are  animals  treated  so  kindly  as 
they  are  in  Turkey.  A  Turk  never  ill-uses  his  horse 
or  his  ox  or  his  domestic  pets,  and  the  wonderful 
tameness  of  these  creatures  in  Turkey  testifies  to 
this  good  trait.  In  Constantinople  the  pariah  dogs 
lie  about  the  streets  in  their  tens  of  thousands;  they 
live  partly  on  garbage  and  partly  on  the  scraps  of 
food  which  even  very  poor  Turks  put  out  for  them. 
These  dogs,  though  fighting  among  themselves,  dis- 
play nothing  but  friendship  for,  and  confidence  in, 
man.  They  never  move  for  one  as  they  sprawl 
across  the  narrow  pavements,  for  they  know  that 
no  Turk  would  have  the  heart  to  kick  them  out  of 
the  way.  A  few  years  ago  an  American  offered  a 
very  large  sum  for  the  right  to  clear  Constanti- 
nople of  its  pariah  dogs,  his  object  being  to  sell 
their  skins  to  the  glove  makers.  The  populace 
raised  a  howl  of  indignation  when  they  heard  of 
8 


THE    TURKISH    PEOPLE 

this,  and  had  not  the  scheme  been  abandoned  seri- 
ous riots  would  have  occurred.  There  is  no  need 
for  a  society  for  the  prevention  of  cruelty  to  ani- 
mals in  a  Turkish  town. 

It  has  often  been  maintained  by  the  enemies  of 
the  Turk  that  his  Mohammedan  fanaticism  makes 
his  continued  occupation  of  any  portion  of  Christian 
Europe  undesirable.  But  in  justice  to  the  votaries 
of  the  Moslem  creed  one  ought  to  bear  in  mind,  in 
the  first  place,  that  early  Mohammedanism  never 
persecuted  the  Christian  religion  in  the  ferocious 
fashion  that  Christianity  persecuted  Mohammedan- 
ism, as  for  example  in  Spain.  The  Moslems  were 
taught  that  it  was  their  duty  to  convert  or  extermi- 
nate the  idolatrous  heathen,  but  to  respect  "the 
people  of  the  book."  Did  not  Mohammed  himself 
spread  his  cloak  upon  the  ground  for  the  Christian 
envoys  who  came  to  him,  treating  them  with  honour; 
and  do  not  the  Mussulmans  believe  that  on  the  day 
of  judgment  the  Judge  will  be  Jesus  Christ,  while  the 
Prophet  Mohammed  will  stand  at  His  side  as  the 
Intercessor?  When  the  Turks  conquered  the  terri- 
tories of  the  Christians  they  did  not  massacre  the 
Christians,  neither  as  a  rule  did  they  enslave  them, 
and  they  did  not  interfere  with  their  religion;  under 
the  more  equitable  Moslem  rule  the  conquered  Greeks 
found  themselves  less  heavily  taxed  and  generally 
better  off  than  they  had  been  under  the  rule  of  the 
emperors  of  the  decaying  Byzantine  Empire.  To 
Jews  also,  as  being  worshippers  of  the  one  God,  they 
extended  a  like  tolerance;  and  it  was  to  Turkey  — 
9 


TURKEY 

where  they  are  numerous  and  prosperous  and  still 
speak  an  old  Spanish  dialect  —  that  the  Jews  fled 
when  they  were  driven  out  of  Spain  by  the  persecu- 
tions of  Ferdinand  and  Isabella. 

That   later   on   the   Mohammedans   developed   a 
fierce   anti-Christian    fanaticism   is   largely   due   to 
centuries  of  political  conflict  with  Christian  peoples, 
and  to  the  many  wars  that  have  been  fought  to 
defend  Islam  against  the  never-ceasing  aggressions 
of  Europe.     Within  the  Turkish  Empire  itself,  for 
example  in  Arabia  and  in  Northern  Albania,  danger- 
ously fanatical  Moslem  populations  are  to  be  found, 
but  these  are  not  people  of  Turkish  blood.     The 
majority   of  the  Turks   of   any   education,   though 
religious,  are  not  fanatics,  and  on  this  very  account 
are  regarded  as  indifferent  Mussulmans  and  often 
frankly  called  kafirs  by  the  bigoted  Arabs.     Of  all 
the  various  peoples  who  inhabit  Turkey  the  Mus- 
sulman Turks  are  undoubtedly  the  least  intolerant. 
The  Christians  of  different  sects  there  hate  each 
other  as  no  Turk  hates  a  Christian  and  no  Christian 
hates  a  Turk.     The  orthodox  Greeks  and  the  Bul- 
garian schismatics  in  Macedonia  employ  all  methods 
of  barbarism  in   their   persecutions  of   each  other. 
When  Bulgaria  formed  part  of  Turkey  the  Bulga- 
rians had  often  to  petition  the  Turks  to  protect  them 
against  the  fanatical  Greeks.     The  Catholic  Latins, 
too,  in  Turkey,  being  in  a  minority,  would  doubtless 
have  been  exterminated  by  their  fellow-Christians 
had  it  not  been  for  the  protection  extended  to  them 
by  the  Turks,  with  the  result  that  they  are  grateful 
10 


THE    TURKISH    PEOPLE 

and  loyal  to  the  Ottoman  rule.  The  recent  revolu- 
tion appears  to  have  brushed  away  almost  com- 
pletely what  religious  fanaticism  there  was  still  left 
among  the  Mohammedan  Turks,  and  the  Young 
Turks  themselves,  the  deliverers  of  the  nation  and 
its  real  rulers,  are  entirely  free  from  it.  I  have 
conversed  with  hundreds  of  these  Young  Turks  and 
have  many  friends  among  them,  and  in  no  country 
have  I  come  across  more  broad-minded  and  tolerant 
men.  There  is  no  doubt  that  Islamism  has  of  late 
years  undergone  a  modernising  process,  thereby  gain- 
ing strength.  The  Sheikh-ul-Islam  himself,  as  head 
of  the  Ulema  —  the  Doctors  of  Law  whose  duty  it 
is  to  interpret  the  judicial  precepts  of  the  Koran, 
and  who  have  hitherto  composed  the  most  fanatical 
and  conservative  element  in  Turkey  —  has  been  at 
great  pains  to  impress  it  upon  the  Mussulman  peo- 
ple, upon  whom  from  his  position  he  exercises  such 
great  influence  that  the  Constitution  which  has  been 
granted  to  them,  though  introducing  the  principle 
of  complete  equality  between  Mussulmans,  Chris- 
tians, and  Jews,  is  quite  in  accordance  with  the 
teachings  of  the  Koran. 

As  I  find  myself  embarked  on  this  somewhat  long 
defence  of  the  Turkish  people  I  may  as  well  deal 
with  another  popular  misconception  concerning  them. 
It  is  often  urged  that  the  Mohammedan  institu- 
tion of  polygamy,  with  its  consequent  degradation 
of  women,  is  incompatible  with  the  progress  or  with 
the  moral  and  mental  well-being  of  a  race,  and  that 
this  by  itself  makes  the  Turk  unfit  to  rule  in 
11 


TURKEY 

Europe.  Now  it  must  be  remembered  that  many 
distinct  races  profess  the  Mohammedan  rehgion,  and 
that  some  of  these  are  barbarian  and  others  deca- 
dent, even  as  are  some  of  the  races  that  profess 
Christianity;  but  it  is  not  fair,  because  the  Turks 
happen  to  be  Mussulmans,  that  they  should  be 
credited  with  the  faults  and  vices  of  some  other 
Mussulman  peoples.  I  have  no  intention  of  discus- 
sing the  effects  of  polygamy,  but  I  may  point  out 
that  the  Turk,  unlike  the  Arab,  appears  to  be  not 
really  polygamous  by  nature,  and  that  whatever 
may  happen  in  some  other  Moslem  lands  there  is  no 
degradation  of  the  women  in  Turkey.  The  Turk- 
ish peasant  women  are  as  far  from  being  degraded 
as  any  other  women  of  their  class  in  Europe.  It 
may  astonish  some  Englishmen  to  learn  that  the 
simple-living  Turk  of  the  upper  and  middle  classes, 
though  his  religion  permits  him  to  marry  four  wives, 
rarely  marries  more  than  one.  Of  the  Young  Turks 
whom  I  have  met,  not  one,  I  believe,  has  more  than 
one  wife,  and  I  have  heard  several  of  them  speak 
with  disapproval  of  the  custom  of  polygamy.  Eng- 
lish ladies  who  have  friends  among  the  Turkish 
ladies  have  told  us  how  refined,  charming,  and  — 
in  these  latter  days  —  well  educated  they  are.  As 
most  Turkish  gentlemen  retain  the  old  customs  in 
their  family  life,  the  Englishman  visiting  the  house 
of  a  Turkish  friend  has  no  opportunity  of  seeing  his 
wife,  but  his  little  daughters  up  to  the  age  of  about 
twelve  years  are  usually  brought  in  by  the  proud 
father  to  see  the  visitor,  just  as  they  might  be  in 
12 


THE    TURKISH    PEOPLE 

England,  when  the  pretty  manners,  the  intelHgence, 
and  the  careful  education  which  they  have  evidently 
received  (they  nearly  always  speak  French  or  some 
other  European  language)  tell  their  own  tale.  The 
constant  and  deep  veneration  which  a  Turk  enter- 
tains for  his  mother  through  life  belies  the  nonsense 
that  is  sometimes  talked  concerning  the  condition 
of  the  women  in  Turkey.  The  Turkish  woman,  too, 
respected  and  trusted,  is  much  freer  than  most  peo- 
ple in  this  country  imagine,  and,  as  I  shall  explain 
later  on,  the  revolution  largely  owed  its  success  to 
her  brave  co-operation. 

One  ought  to  be  able  to  form  some  idea  of  the 
character  of  a  people  from  its  literature.  Turkish 
literature,  the  classical  form  of  which  was  borrowed 
from  that  of  Persia,  has,  like  many  other  things  in 
Turkey,  been  undergoing  a  process  of  modernisation  ; 
it  has  for  some  years  been  under  the  influence  of 
Western,  more  especially  of  French,  literature;  and 
simplicity  and  lucidity  in  the  expression  of  thought 
has  taken  the  place  of  the  intentional  obscurity  and 
artificiality  that  characterise  Oriental  writing.  Mr. 
Stanley  Lane  Poole,  in  the  Turkey  volume  of  the 
excellent  "The  Story  of  the  Nations"  series,  con- 
cludes his  chapter  on  Turkish  men  of  letters  as  fol- 
lows: "The  tone  of  the  imaginative  literature  of 
modern  Turkey  is  very  tender  and  very  sad.  The 
Ottoman  poets  of  to-day  love  chiefly  to  dwell  upon 
such  themes  as  a  fading  flower,  or  a  girl  dying  of 
decline;  and  though  admiration  of  a  recent  French 
school  may  have  something  to  do  with  this,  the 
13 


TURKEY 

fancy  forces  itself  upon  us,  when  we  read  those 
sweet  and  plaintive  verses,  that  a  brave  but  gentle- 
hearted  people,  looking  forward  to  its  future  with- 
out fear,  but  without  hope,  may  be  seeking,  perhaps 
unconsciously,  to  derive  what  sad  comfort  it  may 
from  the  thought  that  all  beautiful  life  must  end  in 
dismal  death."  I  have  met  some  of  these  modern 
Turkish  poets,  very  manly  fellows,  though  their 
work  has  the  melancholy  tinge  described  above,  for 
which,  in  my  opinion,  a  long  political  exile  in  a 
foreign  land  and  sorrows  for  the  evil  fortunes  of 
their  beloved  country  are  largely  responsible.  But 
now  the  days  of  Turkey's  mourning  are  over,  and 
the  more  recent  poems  of  these  men,  who  are  sturdy 
patriots  and  not  decadents,  are  beginning  to  reflect 
the  triumph,  enthusiasm,  and  hope  which  have  char- 
acterised the  Young  Turks  since  their  successful 
revolt  against  the  despotism. 


14 


CHAPTER  II 

ATROCITIES 

SUCH  are  the  people  who  but  recently  were 
spoken  of  as  the  "unspeakable  Turks." 
For  thirty  years  they  have  suffered  from  the 
cruelest  of  tyrannies  and  have  met  with  but  scant 
sympathy  in  Western  Europe;  for  it  was  "their 
double  misfortune,"  to  quote  the  words  of  a  writer 
in  the  Times,  "to  be  oppressed  and  to  be  compelled 
to  bear  the  odium  of  the  cruelty  of  the  oppressor. 
Their  fine  qualities  were  obscured  to  the  world. 
Their  name  was  a  byword  for  cruelty,  violence,  and 
fanaticism."  In  England,  if  one  attempted  to  de- 
fend the  Turk,  one  was  regarded  as  a  cold-blooded 
villain  by  a  great  many  good  people.  A  considerable 
section  of  the  English  lost  their  sense  of  fair  play  so 
soon  as  the  Turkish  question  became  at  the  same 
time  a  pawn  in  our  party  politics  and  an  excitant 
of  religious  bigotry;  for  one  political  party  became 
avowedly  anti-Turkish,  while  numbers  of  well-mean- 
ing but  unjust  Christian  people  approached  the  sub- 
ject from  the  point  of  view  which  made  a  Mussulman 
appear  everything  that  is  vile,  and  so  espoused  the 
cause  of  Turkey's  Christian  enemies  as  being  of  neces- 
sity the  right  one.  It  was  the  same  sort  of  sectarian 
15 


TURKEY 

narrow-mindedness  that  impelled  well-known  preach- 
ers —  not  members  of  the  English  State  Church  — 
to  pray  from  their  pulpits  for  the  success  of  the 
Americans  in  their  war  with  Spain,  because  Spain 
was  Catholic  and  the  "land  of  the  Inquisition." 
Thus  it  came  about  when  Turkey's  Christian  sub- 
jects rebelled  in  the  seventies  and  the  Russians 
came  to  their  assistance,  the  Turks  were  held  up  to 
opprobrium  as  fiends  in  human  shape,  the  murderers, 
violators,  and  mutilators  of  the  gentle  Christians. 
Any  piece  of  evidence,  second-hand  or  third-hand, 
however  extravagant,  was  implicitly  believed  by 
these  people  provided  it  was  against  the  Turks, 
whereas  whenever  charges  of  committing  atrocities 
were  brought  against  Russians  and  Bulgarians  by 
the  most  trustworthy  eye-witnesses  a  very  different 
standard  of  evidence  was  set  up,  and  it  was  held  to 
be  incredible  that  Christians  could  do  these  things. 
Yet  what  were  the  facts?  In  the  first  place,  there 
can  be  no  doubt  that  Russia,  bent  on  the  destruc- 
tion of  Turkey  and  aggrandisement  at  her  expense, 
had  stirred  the  Bulgarians  into  rebellion  by  means 
of  agents  provocateurs.  Travellers  who  visited  Bul- 
garia in  the  years  preceding  the  Russo-Turkish  war 
state  that  the  Bulgarian  peasantry  were  more  pros- 
perous than  any  in  Turkey.  It  is  unlikely  that  they 
would  have  risen  of  their  own  accord,  seeing  that 
they  had  good  reason  to  be  grateful  to  the  Turks, 
who  had  come  to  their  rescue  when  their  persecuting 
Greek  fellow-Christians  had  set  themselves  to  exter- 
minate the  Bulgarian  Church,  language,  and  nation- 
16 


ATROCITIES 

ality.  In  the  next  place,  it  is  now  realised  that  the 
Christians  and  not  the  Turks  initiated  the  atrocities. 
The  Bulgarians,  when  they  rose,  plundered  and 
burnt  the  villages  of  the  Turks,  committed  the  most 
shocking  cruelties,  and  massacred  unarmed  Moslem 
men,  women,  and  children.  There  is  good  evidence 
to  show  that  the  Turkish  regular  troops  behaved  with 
consideration  to  the  Christian  population  until  their 
passions  were  roused  by  the  barbarities  committed 
by  the  Bulgarians  and  Russian  Cossacks ;  then  indeed 
the  Turks,  exasperated  by  the  sufferings  of  their 
co-religionists,  engaged  in  terrible  reprisals  which 
aroused  the  indignation  of  the  civilised  world.  Fero- 
cious when  provoked  by  the  cruelty  of  others,  the 
Turks  are  the  last  people  to  engage  in  wanton  cruelty, 
and  those  who  like  myself  have  seen  their  armies 
in  time  of  war  can  vouch  for  their  humane  treat- 
ment of  prisoners  and  of  the  civil  population  in  an 
enemy's  country.  It  must  be  remembered,  too,  that 
the  worst  atrocities  proved  against  the  Turks  in  Bul- 
garia were  committed  not  by  Turkish  regulars  but 
by  fanatical  Circassians  and  by  the  Bashi-Bazouks, 
ill-disciplined  irregulars  recruited  from  the  criminals 
and  ne'er-do-weels  of  any  races,  detested  by  the 
Turks  themselves  for  their  excesses. 

The  evil  name  thus  acquired  by  the  Turk  during 
the  war  with  Russia  stuck  to  him  through  the  years 
that  followed,  and  ignorant  prejudice  has  been  wont 
to  put  down  to  him  all  the  cruel  deeds  committed  by 
the  Palace  Camarilla,  including  the  terrible  Arme- 
nian massacres,  which  were  perpetrated,  not  by  the 
17 


TURKEY 

Turks  —  who  regarded  these  crimes  with  loathing  — 
but  by  the  savage  Kurds  and  Lazes,  at  the  instiga- 
tion of  those  who  misruled  the  unfortunate  country. 
In  many  ways  the  Turks  have  suffered  more  from 
the  oppressive  despotism  than  their  Christian  fel- 
low-subjects, but  all  the  sympathy  of  our  humanita- 
rians has  been  for  the  latter,  and  they  had  little  pity 
or  sympathy  to  spare  for  the  Mussulman.  Of  late 
years  the  political  intriguers  in  Athens,  Sofia,  and 
Belgrade  have  been  supporting  bands  of  Christian 
brigands  in  Macedonia,  with  the  object  of  forwarding 
the  rival  interests  of  the  Greeks,  Bulgarians,  and 
Servians,  in  anticipation  of  the  scramble  over  the 
partition  of  that  rich  country  on  the  breaking  up 
of  the  Ottoman  Empire.  These  bands  have  been 
burning  villages  and  murdering  women  and  children, 
their  excesses  being  committed  against  both  Chris- 
tians and  Turks.  In  i\pril,  1908,  a  Bulgarian  band 
burnt  a  Greek  priest  at  the  stake.  The  incident 
aroused  no  comment.  What  a  howl  would  have 
been  raised  had  the  Mussulmans  done  this  thing! 

So  the  Christian  had  plenty  of  friends  and  the 
Turk  few.  No  voices  were  raised  to  defend  him  and 
to  explain  the  injustice  that  was  done  him.  Neither 
was  he  the  man  to  put  his  own  case  before  his  Euro- 
pean critics;  for  the  Turk  is  better  with  the  sword 
than  with  the  pen;  he  is  not  so  cunning  as  Greek  or 
Bulgarian  in  carrying  on  a  newspaper  campaign,  or  in 
the  weaving  of  effective  misrepresentations ;  as  a  rule 
he  is  too  proud  to  defend  himself  against  calumny, 
and  treats  with  silent  contempt  those  who  snarl  at 
18 


ATROCITIES 

him.  Moreover  the  Turk,  being  essentially  a  pa- 
triot, would  not  appeal  for  help  to  foreign  Govern- 
ments as  did  the  Christians.  To  quote  from  an 
article  recently  written  by  Halil  Halid:  "The  Mus- 
sulmans suffered  as  much  as,  indeed  in  many  places 
more  than,  the  Christians,  from  a  despotic  regime. 
They  had  submitted,  not  to  the  will  of  their  rulers, 
but  to  their  hard  fate,  because  Turkish  patriotism, 
which  has  not  until  recently  received  fitting  atten- 
tion, was  too  great  to  allow  them  to  invite  outside 
interference  or  help  in  the  national  struggle  against 
native  tyranny.  Never  despairing  of  gaining  their 
end,  the  people  of  Turkey  have  waited  for  an  oppor- 
tune moment  to  strike  a  blow  at  the  foundations  of 
despotism,  and  this  promptly  and  with  the  least 
possible  risk  of  international  complications.  They 
have  thus  submitted  to  the  indignities  and  hardships 
caused  by  the  tyranny  of  their  own  rulers,  rather 
than  expose  themselves  to  the  patronising  interfer- 
ence of  any  foreign  Power." 

There  are  thus  excuses  for  the  misunderstanding 
that  poisoned  the  minds  of  so  many  Englishmen 
against  their  former  friends,  the  Turks.  Greeks,  Bul- 
garians, and  others  who  sought  the  dismemberment 
of  Turkey  and  the  appropriation  of  Macedonia  voiced 
their  cause  loudly,  not  only  with  just  denunciations 
of  the  Turkish  oppression  of  the  Christians,  but  with 
many  plausible  inventions.  That  the  Turkish  side 
of  the  question  was  so  rarely  heard  was  also  largely 
due  to  the  fact  that,  during  the  few  years  preced- 
ing the  revolution,  it  became  ever  more  difficult  for 
19 


TURKEY 

Englishmen  in  Turkey  to  have  friendly  intercourse 
with  the  Turks  themselves.  The  intervention  of  the 
English  Government  to  introduce  reforms  into  Tur- 
key, and  the  action  of  the  Balkan  and  Armenian 
Committees,  which  were  wrongly  believed  by  the 
Sultan  and  his  advisers  —  and  appear  still  to  be 
believed  by  all  Germans  and  Austrians  —  to  be  the 
agents  in  advance  of  the  perfidious  English  Govern- 
ment, so  intensified  the  hatred  of  the  Turkish  des- 
potism against  England  that  it  was  practically  made 
a  crime  for  a  Turk,  especially  if  he  was  suspected  of 
Liberal  tendencies,  to  receive  an  Englishman  into  his 
house.  If  a  Turk  was  even  seen  to  speak  to  an  Eng- 
lishman in  Constantinople  the  spies  reported  the  fact 
to  the  Palace;  and,  as  I  shall  explain  later,  to  mani- 
fest sympathy  for  the  British  cost  many  a  Turk  his 
life  and  liberty.  Thus  the  intelligent  tourist,  or  the 
globe-trotting  M.P.,  who  visited  Constantinople  in 
those  days  was  not  in  a  position  to  pick  up  accurate 
information.  His  doings  and  goings  would  probably 
be  watched  by  spies,  especially  if  he  was  a  member 
of  the  Balkan  Committee.  Though  he  knew  it  not, 
he  would  find  no  opportunity  of  conversing  with 
Turks  save  such  as  were  the  secret  agents  of  the 
Palace.  His  dragomans  would  be  Greeks  or  Arme- 
nians, who  might  speak  to  him  of  the  grievances  of 
the  Christian  subjects  of  the  Sultan,  but  certainly 
not  of  the  grievances  of  the  Turks.  So,  too,  was  it 
with  most  of  the  journalists.  If  they  were  anti- 
Turks  they  sought  information  from  the  members 
of  the  Greek  and  Bulgarian  bands,  and  if  they  were 
20 


ATROCITIES 

pro-Turks  they  were  on  friendly  terms  with  official- 
dom —  they  had  audiences  with  ministers,  possibly 
with  the  Sultan  himself;  and  as  all  Turks  are  very 
polite,  they  often  left  the  audience-chamber  charmed 
with  despotism,  and  explained,  in  the  papers  they 
represented,  that  the  Young  Turk  party  was  either 
a  myth  or  a  small  and  impotent  group  of  malcon- 
tents, who,  during  a  sojourn  in  Paris,  had  absorbed 
the  wild  theories  of  the  internationalists  and  anar- 
chists. 

To  drive  the  Turks  "bag  and  baggage"  out  of 
Europe  was  the  proclaimed  policy  of  many  ignorant 
humanitarians.  The  expulsion  of  the  Turkish  rule 
would  indeed  have  been  followed  by  a  bag-and-bag- 
gage  exodus,  for  but  a  small  minority  of  Mussulmans 
would  have  remained  in  the  land  to  be  governed  by 
a  Christian  race.  In  former  years  Russia  and  Aus- 
tria were  regarded  as  the  probable  inheritors  of  the 
"Sick  Man's"  European  territories,  and  it  is  certain 
that  the  rule  of  either  of  these  would  be  intolerable 
to  the  Turks.  One  remembers  how  the  Circassian 
and  Bosnian  Mussulmans  emigrated  in  large  num- 
bers into  Turkey  when  their  countries  were  occupied 
respectively  by  the  Russians  and  Austrians.  These 
emigrations  were  accompanied  by  great  suffering 
and  loss  of  life,  due  largely  to  the  incapacity  and 
callousness  of  the  Turkish  Government,  which,  while 
undertaking  to  found  colonies  of  the  refugees  in  Asia 
Minor,  Mesopotamia,  and  other  parts  of  the  Empire, 
practically  left  them  to  starve.  The  humanitarians 
would  have  realised  the  cruelty  of  their  proposal  had 
21 


TURKEY 

they  seen,  as  I  did,  the  pitiful  sights  In  Northern 
Albania  thirty  years  ago.  The  Bosnian  Mussul- 
man peasants,  escaping  from  the  rule  of  Austria, 
were  pouring  into  that  portion  of  Turkish  territory. 
Men,  women,  and  children  were  slowly  crawling 
across  the  snow-covered  country  in  the  bitter  win- 
ter weather,  weak  and  listless  with  hunger  and  cold, 
often  frost-bitten,  hundreds  of  them  failing  by  the 
way,  so  that  it  was  a  common  thing  to  see  frozen 
corpses  lying  by  the  roadside.  The  Albanians  them- 
selves were  in  a  half-starving  condition  after  the 
ravages  of  the  war,  and  could  render  little  assist- 
ance to  the  wretched  refugees.  Under  the  bag-and- 
baggage  scheme  there  would  be  an  exodus  of  millions 
and  unimaginable  suffering.  Had  Europe  committed 
this  crime  the  retribution  might  have  been  heavy. 
The  Sultan  would  still  have  been  the  Caliph  of 
the  Moslem  world,  and  the  Turks,  driven  into  Asia, 
might  have  reformed  their  Government  and  set  their 
house  in  order,  even  as  they  are  doing  now;  but 
the  Turkish  awakening,  Instead  of  taking  Its  pres- 
ent form,  would  have  taken  that  of  Pan-Islamism 
—  the  combination  against  the  Christians  of  all  the 
Mussulman  peoples. 

The  humane  bag-and-baggage  proposal  would 
have  meant  the  expulsion  of  nearly  half  the  popula- 
tion of  Turkey  and  the  replacement  of  the  Turkish 
by  some  other  rule.  But  the  Russianlsatlon  or  Ger- 
manlsation  of  the  Balkan  Peninsula  would  have  been 
more  disagreeable  to  the  Christian  population  than 
even  the  domination  of  the  Turk,  while  it  would 
22 


ATROCITIES 

have  been  impossible  to  divide  the  country  among 
the  neighbouring  states  in  such  a  way  as  to  satisfy 
the  inhabitants.  In  the  peninsula  are  jumbled  up 
remnants  of  every  race  and  creed,  not  collected  into 
separate  districts,  but  intermingling  with  each  other, 
hating  each  other,  jealous  of  each  other  —  Servians 
dreaming  of  the  larger  Servia,  Bulgarians  of  the  larger 
Bulgaria,  Greeks  of  the  larger  Greece  —  their  terri- 
torial claims,  based  upon  race  distinctions,  all  over- 
lapping each  other;  an  entanglement  of  rival  rights 
and  interests  impossible  of  unravelment.  Neither 
of  these  Christian  races  would  submit  to  be  ruled  by 
the  other.  For  example,  there  can  be  no  doubt  that 
a  Bulgarian  would  rather  be  governed  by  the  Moslem 
Turk  than  by  the  Greek.  And  amid  all  these  races, 
more  numerous  than  any  of  them  taken  singly,  are 
the  ruling  Turks,  who  own  the  fee  simple  of  the  land 
by  the  best  of  titles,  conquest.  They  are  the  strong 
race  whose  bearing  is  in  strong  contrast  to  the  servil- 
ity of  some  of  the  races  in  their  midst.  They  are  the 
masterly  people  fit  to  rule  the  others;  for  whatever 
peace  fanatics  may  say,  only  people  ready  to  fight 
bravely  in  defence  of  their  possessions  are  fit  to  own 
possessions.  We  have  not  arrived  at  the  state  of 
civilisation  when  it  can  be  otherwise.  Even  our 
humanitarians,  who  unknown  to  themselves  have 
some  of  the  old  Adam  in  them,  respect  thosewho  can 
use  the  sword;  for  whereas  they  sympathise  with 
the  aspirations  of  the  plucky  Bulgarians  they  pay 
little  heed  to  the  Greeks,  who,  though  the  noisiest 
of  the  claimants  to  Turkey's  heritage  and  having 


TURKEY 

vast  pretensions  which  extend  to  every  piece  of  terri- 
tory in  Europe  and  Asia  that  ever  belonged  to  any  of 
the  states  of  ancient  Greece,  are  among  the  feeblest 
people  in  the  world  in  the  practice  of  war. 

It  needs  a  strong  rule  to  keep  the  rival  Christian 
sects  of  the  Balkan  Peninsula  in  order  and  to  pre- 
vent them  from  cutting  each  other's  throats,  lop- 
ping off  each  other's  ears,  and  burning  each  other's 
priests.  The  Turks  can  provide  that  strong  rule; 
and  if  we  add  to  the  Turks  the  Mussulmans  of 
other  race  in  the  country  —  Albanians,  Moslem  Bul- 
garians, Circassians,  and  others  —  we  have  nearly 
half  the  total  population  united  by  a  common  relig- 
ion, as  the  Christians  certainly  are  not.  The  Young 
Turks  may  now  prove  that  Lord  Palmerston,  after 
all,  was  right  when  he  said  that  the  rule  of  the 
Mussulman  Turk  was  the  only  one  that  could  com- 
bine the  different  races  and  sects  of  Turkey  in  one 
kingdom.  The  Turks  have  no  ambition  to  recover 
the  territory  which  they  have  lost,  but  they  are 
determined  to  hold  on  to  what  still  remains  to 
them.  With  a  strong  Turkey,  in  close  alliance 
with  a  federation  of  the  Slav  states  to  the  north  of 
her,  we  may  yet  see  a  quiet  and  contented  Balkan 
Peninsula. 


U 


CHAPTER    III 

EARLY   REFORMERS 

IT  is  about  a  century  ago  that  Western  ideas  be- 
gan to  influence  the  better  Turkish  statesmen 
and  efforts  were  made  to  reform  the  system  of 
government  and  bring  it  into  harmony  with  modern 
civiHsation.  Mahmud  II,  who  came  to  the  throne 
in  1808,  and  his  successor,  Abd-ul-Mejid,  who  died 
in  1861,  were  wise  and  reforming  monarchs,  who 
were  advised  by  enhghtened  statesmen  such  as 
Reshid  Pasha,  at  whose  instance,  in  1839,  the  edict 
known  as  the  Hatti-Sherif  of  Gulhane  was  promul- 
gated. This  edict,  which  has  been  called  the  Magna 
Charta  of  Turkey,  promised  many  useful  adminis- 
trative and  judicial  reforms,  and  secured  to  the 
Christian  as  well  as  Mussulman  subjects  of  the  Sul- 
tan security  for  their  lives,  honour,  and  property. 
Again,  in  1856,  after  the  Crimean  war,  the  Hatti 
Houmaioum  Firman  announced  among  other  things 
the  complete  equality  in  the  eyes  of  the  law  of 
the  Christians  and  Mussulmans  in  Turkey.  I  need 
scarcely  say  that  these  solemn  engagements  have 
been  wholly  ignored  by  Turkey's  recent  rulers. 

In  1861,  on  the  death  of  Abd-ul-Mejid,  Abd-ul- 
Aziz  succeeded  to  the  throne  of  Othman.     He  was 
25 


TURKEY 

assisted  by  a  group  of  patriotic  and  able  statesmen, 
among  whom  were  Fuad  Pasha,  Rushdi  Pasha,  Aali 
Pasha,  and  Midhat  Pasha;  and  for  the  first  ten  years 
of  his  reign  he  ruled  his  country  well.  He  made  the 
Turkish  navy  one  of  the  most  formidable  in  Europe; 
he  organised  the  army  that  fought  so  stubbornly  at 
Plevna;  justice  was  administered,  and  the  press  was 
free  to  criticise  the  Government.  But  this  promis- 
ing monarch,  unfortunately  for  his  country,  broke 
away  from  the  tutelage  of  wise  men  and  fell  under 
the  influence  of  evil  advisers.  On  the  death  of  Aali 
Pasha  in  1872,  Mahmud  Nedim  Pasha,  a  man  who 
was  fanatically  anti-European  and  uneducated,  be- 
came the  chief  adviser  of  the  Sultan,  and  was  soon 
created  Grand  Vizier.  The  character  of  the  Sul- 
tan seemed  now  to  undergo  a  complete  change;  his 
policy  became  retrograde  and  reactionary;  he  drove 
from  his  side  the  good  and  wise  and  surrounded 
himself  with  corrupt  parasites,  who  were  in  manj^ 
cases  the  ready  tools  of  Ignatieff;  for  the  Russian 
diplomacy  had  gained  the  ascendency  in  Constan- 
tinople, and,  as  usual,  was  employed  in  intriguing 
against  the  party  of  reform  and  organising  the  dis- 
ruption of  the  Ottoman  Empire. 

And  now  commenced  that  final  struggle  between 
the  Palace  and  the  Sublime  Porte  which  has  resulted 
in  the  overthrow  of  the  Despotism.  The  Sultan, 
though  the  absolute  head  of  the  Church  and  State, 
had  hitherto  left  the  administration  of  the  Empire 
to  his  Cabinet  of  Ministers  chosen  by  himself,  whose 
office  is  known  as  the  Sublime  Porte.  Abd-ul-Aziz  "j 
26 


EARLY    REFORMERS 

attempted  to  break  down  this  system,  and  to  centre 
in  himself  the  entire  rule  of  the  country;  soon  the 
ministers  became  mere  puppets,  and  the  Palace  was 
made  paramount.  The  Sultan  assumed  the  com- 
plete control  of  the  Treasury,  and  refused  to  give 
any  account  of  the  public  revenues  which  he  wasted. 
He  contracted  loans  in  Europe  under  onerous  con- 
ditions that  endangered  the  very  independence  of 
the  Empire. 

The  patriots  among  the  Turkish  statesmen,  who 
had  been  cast  out  from  all  direction  of  public  affairs, 
almost  despaired  of  their  country,  and  the  risings  in 
Herzegovina  and  Bosnia,  presaging  European  inter- 
vention, seemed  to  many  to  be  the  beginning  of  the 
end.  The  great  Midhat  Pasha,  whom  the  Young 
Turks  speak  of  as  the  first  martyr  of  their  cause,  had 
the  temerity  to  seek  a  two-hours'  private  audience 
of  the  Sultan,  and  pointed  out  to  him  with  such 
forcible  eloquence  the  corruption  of  his  administra- 
tion, the  incapacity  of  his  Grand  Vizier,  and  the 
certain  destruction  to  which  he  was  dragging  his 
country,  that  Abd-ul-Aziz  was  terrified,  his  eyes 
were  for  a  moment  opened,  and  he  saw  the  dread- 
ful truth;  so  deposing  Mahmud  Nedim  he  appointed 
Midhat  and  Rushdi  as  his  principal  ministers  and 
advisers.  For  three  months  only  these  reforming 
statesmen  were  left  in  power,  for  Midhat  Pasha  was 
suddenly  disgraced  because  he  had  expressed  indig- 
nation when  a  favourite  odalisque  of  the  monarch 
had  sent  a  negro  to  him  to  ask  him  to  appoint  one 
of  her  servants  to  a  provincial  vice-governorship. 
27 


TURKEY 

The  system  of  Mahmud  Nedim  was  reintroduced; 
things  went  from  bad  to  worse;  justice  became 
openly  venal;  ranks  in  the  services  were  sold  by 
Palace  favourites;  the  entire  administration  became 
grossly  corrupt  and  disorganised;  and  at  last,  in 
1875,  the  Turkish  Government  had  to  declare  itself 
insolvent. 

Turks  who  had  the  w^elfare  of  their  country  at 
heart  felt  that  it  was  necessary  to  put  a  forcible  end 
to  this  state  of  things.  On  May  22,  6000  Softas, 
the  theological  students  attached  to  the  mosques, 
invaded  the  Sublime  Porte  and  clamoured  for  the 
deposition  of  the  Grand  Vizier,  w^hile  some  thou- 
sands of  others  demonstrated  in  front  of  the  Palace. 
The  Sultan,  terrified,  yielded  to  these  demands,  de- 
posed Mahmud  Nedim,  recalled  Rushdi  Pasha;  and 
a  Cabinet  of  reforming  statesmen,  including  Midhat 
Pasha,  was  formed.  Then  came  the  famous  cowp 
d'etat.  The  ministers,  having  reason  to  doubt  the 
good  faith  of  the  monarch,  decided  to  depose  him. 
In  the  night  of  May  30,  1876,  the  Palace  was  sur- 
rounded by  troops,  the  Chief  Eunuch  was  called  up 
and  was  ordered  to  awake  his  master  and  hand  him 
Ihefetva,  or  decree  of  the  Sheikh-ul -Islam,  Hairoullah 
Effendi,  in  his  capacity  of  chief  expounder  of  the 
sacred  law,  a  decree  to  which  even  a  Sultan  must 
submit.  The  fetva  was  set  forth  in  the  form  of  a 
question  and  answer  as  follows:  "If  the  Head  of  the 
Believers  has  so  lost  his  reason  as  to  ruin  the  State, 
which  God  has  confided  to  his  care,  by  foolish  ex- 
penditure, by  wild  caprices,  and  if  the  continuation 
28 


EARLY    REFORMERS 

of  this  misrule  is  likely  to  bring  on  a  situation  which 
will  destroy  the  sacred  interests  of  the  country,  is  it 
permissible  to  leave  that  man  at  the  head  of  affairs, 
or  ought  one  to  deprive  him  of  his  power?  The  an- 
swer is,  that  he  ought  to  be  deprived  of  his  power." 
Thus  the  Sheikh-ul-Islam,  in  the  name  of  the  Mo- 
hammedan religion,  approved  of  the  revolution  of 
1876,  even  as  did  another  Sheikh-ul-Islam  declare 
himself  in  favour  of  the  recent  Young  Turk  revolu- 
tion and  the  granting  of  the  Constitution.  It  is  im- 
portant to  remember  that  despotism  is  not  (as  many 
suppose  that  it  is)  in  accord  with  the  teachings 
of  the  Koran,  and  that  constitutional  government 
ought  not  to  be  acceptable  to  good  Mussulmans. 
Islam,  as  the  Young  Turks  point  out,  condemns 
tyranny  and  encourages  peoples  to  rule  themselves. 
The  following,  for  example,  are  passages  from  the 
Koran  which  have  been  much  quoted  in  Turkey  of 
late:  "God  loveth  not  tyrants";  "When  a  people 
direct  their  affairs  by  consulting  among  themselves 
they  shall  get  their  reward." 

So  Abd-ul-Aziz  was  deposed  and  Murad  V  became 
Sultan  in  his  place.  The  new  monarch  issued  a 
proclamation  by  which  he  promised  to  carry  out  the 
reforms  advocated  by  his  minister,  Midhat  Pasha; 
and  the  well-wishers  of  Turkey  rejoiced.  But  un- 
happy Turkey  was  not  to  be  freed  yet,  and  an  event 
happened  that  turned  hope  into  despair.  Four  days 
after  his  deposition  Abd-ul-Aziz  either  committed 
suicide  or  was  assassinated  in  the  palace  to  which 
he  had  been  removed.  If  he  was  murdered,  he  who 
29 


TURKEY 

committed  the  crime  must  have  been  the  greatest 
enemy  of  Turkey,  and  none  of  the  ministers  could 
have  had  anything  to  do  with  a  deed  that  upset  all 
their  plans  for  the  regeneration  of  their  country. 
So  soon  as  Abd-ul-Aziz  was  found  dead  his  Circas- 
sian aide-de-camp,  Hassan,  rushed  to  Midhat  Pasha's 
house,  w^here  the  ministers  were  assembled,  and 
assassinated  two  of  these  whom  Turkey  could  ill 
spare,  Avni  Pasha  and  Rachid  Pasha.  This  suc- 
cession of  tragic  events  so  shook  the  weak  mind  of 
the  new  Sultan  that  he  became  hopelessly  insane. 
After  a  reign  of  only  three  months  it  became  neces- 
sary to  depose  him,  and  the  legitimate  heir,  his 
brother,  Abdul  Hamid,  the  present  Sultan  of  Tur- 
key, ascended  the  throne  in  the  autumn  of  1876. 

Abdul  Hamid,  however,  was  not  permitted  to 
grasp  the  sceptre  until  he  had  signed  a  document 
by  which  he  undertook  to  grant  a  Constitution  to 
his  people  and  to  rule  with  justice.  Indeed,  he  was 
ready  to  make  any  promises,  and  accepted  without 
reserve  the  liberal  principles  of  Midhat  Pasha  and 
the  reformers.  No  one  in  Turkey  believes  that  he 
was  sincere,  and  Sefer  Bey  recounts  in  La  Revue 
how,  on  the  very  day  of  his  succession,  Abdul 
Hamid,  on  his  return  to  the  Palace,  after  having 
gone  through  the  traditional  ceremony  of  buckling 
on  the  sword  of  Othman,  spoke  in  the  following 
words  to  a  well-known  Turkish  general  of  his  en- 
tourage: "It  is  Reshid  Pasha  who  is  responsible  for 
everything  that  has  happened;  it  is  that  great  crim- 
inal who  made  my  father  sign  that  accursed  firman 
30 


EARLY    REFORMERS 

under  the  pressure  of  Europe,  and  by  giving  stupid 
illusions  to  the  Turkish  people  has  led  them  into 
wrong  ways.  The  government  which  our  nation 
needs  is  an  absolute  despotism,  and  not  the  perni- 
cious regime  of  liberty  which  Europe  practises.  I 
shall  know  how  to  put  order  in  the  ideas  of  the  peo- 
ple, but  before  all,  I  must  make  my  position  secure 
and  get  rid  of  the  wretches  who  deposed  my  uncle." 
At  the  opening  of  the  new  reign,  however,  the 
reformers  looked  to  the  future  with  hope.  Midhat 
Pasha  was  appointed  Prime  Minister,  and  began  to 
work  out  his  scheme  for  the  regeneration  of  Turkey. 
He  framed  his  Constitution,  which  established  the 
equality  of  all  races  and  creeds,  and  took  steps  to 
crush  the  rebellion  in  European  Turkey  that  was 
threatening  to  bring  about  a  European  war.  Midhat 
was  beloved  by  educated  and  patriotic  Turks,  and 
was  strongly  supported  by  the  people;  his  position 
seemed  unassailable.  But  before  he  had  been  four 
months  on  the  throne  Abdul  Hamid  struck  his  first 
blow  at  liberty,  and  showed  what  manner  of  man  he 
was.  Midhat  was  suddenly  summoned  to  the  Pal- 
ace, and  on  arriving  there  was  informed  that  his  exile 
had  been  determined  upon  and  that  he  must  forth- 
with board  a  vessel  that  was  awaiting  him  in  the 
Bosphorus  with  steam  up,  and  betake  himself  beyond 
the  confines  of  the  Ottoman  Empire.  Then  the  Sul- 
tan set  himself  to  put  out  of  the  way  the  other 
men  who  had  taken  a  part  in  the  deposition  of 
Abd-ul-Aziz.  Rushdi  Pasha  and  the  Sheikh-ul-Islam 
were  exiled  to  remote  parts  of  the  Empire,  while 
31 


TURKEY 

many  less  distinguished  Liberals  disappeared,  being 
either  killed  or  imprisoned. 

Midhat  Pasha,  the  greatest  of  the  Turkish  re- 
formers, as  an  exile,  lived  in  several  European  capi- 
tals, studied  on  the  spot  the  principles  of  decent 
government,  and  formed  plans  for  the  amelioration 
of  the  condition  of  his  unfortunate  country  when  the 
opportunity  should  arrive.  The  Sultan  appears  to 
have  come  to  the  conclusion  that  his  ex-Grand  Vizier 
might  be  as  dangerous  to  the  Despotism  while  in 
Europe  as  he  had  been  in  Turkey.  A  plot,  the  de- 
tails of  which  are  well  known,  was  laid  to  bring 
about  Midhat 's  destruction.  He  was  led  to  beheve 
that  the  Sultan  had  repented  of  his  injustice,  had 
come  to  see  the  errors  of  his  illiberal  pohcy,  and 
desired  that  the  able  statesman  should  return  to 
Turkey  to  give  his  valuable  assistance  in  the  reor- 
ganisation of  the  Empire.  So,  after  a  long  exile, 
Midhat,  accepting  a  treacherous  invitation,  came 
back  to  his  native  land,  and  was  made  Governor  of 
Syria.  Shortly  after  his  appointment  he  was  de- 
nounced to  the  Palace  by  false  accusers,  who  were 
prepared  to  prove  that  Abd-ul-Aziz  had  been  assas- 
sinated by  Midhat's  orders.  After  an  iniquitous 
trial,  by  judges  who  pretended  to  credit  the  obvi- 
ous inventions  of  suborned  witnesses,  he  was  found 
guilty,  and  as  it  might  have  been  dangerous  to  exe- 
cute a  man  so  much  beloved  and  respected,  he  was 
condemned  to  imprisonment  in  a  fortress  in  Arabia. 
There  he  was  treated  with  great  inhumanity  and 
deprived  of  all  the  comforts  and  some  of  the  neces- 
32 


EARLY    REFORMERS 

saries  of  life.  As  his  strong  constitution  resisted 
these  privations  for  three  years,  he  was  strangled 
in  May,  1884,  by  order  of  his  persecutors,  and  his 
head  was  sent  to  the  Palace,  so  that  there  should 
be  no  doubt  about  his  death. 

The  Sultan  had  rid  himself  of  all  the  chief  friends 
of  liberty  immediately  after  his  accession  to  the 
throne,  but,  cautious  and  fearful  by  nature,  he  took 
no  further  immediate  steps  to  impose  absolute  des- 
potism upon  his  people.  Mainly  with  the  object  of 
hoodwinking  England  and  winning  her  good-will  at 
the  critical  period  preceding  the  outbreak  of  the 
war  with  Russia,  he  proclaimed  the  Constitution  of 
Midhat  Pasha,  and  a  Turkish  Parliament  was  allowed 
to  meet.  The  Sultan  imposed  his  will  upon  the  Par- 
liament and  reduced  it  to  impotence;  but  there 
were  many  patriotic  deputies  who  spoke  their  minds 
freely  and  defied  the  monarch's  wrath.  At  last,  in 
February,  1878,  shortly  before  the  conclusion  of  the 
treaty  of  peace  with  Russia  at  St.  Stephano,  the 
Sultan  dissolved  both  Houses,  and,  with  pretended 
reluctance,  suspended  the  Constitution.  He  next 
proceeded  to  deprive  the  Sublime  Porte  of  all  power 
and  to  make  the  Palace  supreme.  The  ministers 
became  mere  puppets,  whose  submission  was  bought 
by  the  license  that  was  allowed  to  them  to  embezzle 
the  public  funds.  The  control  of  the  army  and  navy, 
of  foreign  affairs,  of  the  finances  of  the  Empire,  every 
branch  of  the  administration,  the  appointment  of 
every  official  were  in  the  hands  of  the  Sovereign  and 
his  corrupt  Camarilla.  Having  a  pampered  Prseto- 
33 


TURKEY 

rian  Guard  to  enforce  his  will,  he  held  Constanti- 
nople under  martial  law.  It  was  a  reign  of  terror; 
he  spared  none  who  were  not  for  him.  From  the 
dissolution  of  Turkey's  first  Parliament  in  1878  until 
the  proclamation  of  the  Constitution  in  1908  Tur- 
key was  oppressed  by  one  of  the  most  demoralising 
and  destructive  tyrannies  that  the  world  has  known. 
For  the  Ottoman  Empire  those  thirty  years  were  the 
most  unhappy  and  disastrous  of  its  long  history. 


34 


CHAPTER    IV 

THE    SPREAD    OF    CORRUPTION 

THE  Sultan's  policy  was  directed  by  a  narrow 
fanaticism.  It  is  possible  that  he  sincerely 
beHeved  that  a  cruel  despotism  was  the  best 
rule  for  Turkey.  He  hated  the  Christians,  and  it 
was  his  ambition  to  realise  the  dream  of  the  Pan- 
Islamites,  to  gather  together  round  himself  as  the 
Caliph  all  the  followers  of  the  faith  of  whatever  race, 
so  as  to  form  a  strong  political-religious  confedera- 
tion of  Moslems  that  should  keep  in  check  the  aggres- 
sions of  Europe  and  liberate  Mussulman  peoples 
now  subject  to  the  Christians.  It  was  his  aim,  too, 
to  withdraw  all  such  rights  as  his  predecessors  had 
granted  to  the  Christian  subjects  of  Turkey  and  to 
revoke  the  irritating  privileges  which  the  Capitula- 
tions had  given  to  foreigners  within  Turkish  terri- 
tory —  not  in  themselves  ignoble  designs,  but  which 
were  prosecuted  by  such  ignoble  methods  as  nearly 
to  destroy  instead  of  to  strengthen  the  Moslem  su- 
premacy in  Turkey. 

It  is  not  necessary  here  to  follow  the  history  of 

Turkey  under  the  Hamidian  regime.     How,  defeated 

in  war,  she  was  bereft  of  vast  and  rich  territories; 

how  the  splendid  navy,  created  by  Abd-ul-Aziz,  was 

35 


TURKEY 

allowed  to  fall  into  decay,  so  that  when  Turkey  was 
at  war  with  Greece  in  1897,  she  found  herself  with 
not  a  single  ship  that  could  be  made  fit  to  put  to  sea; 
how  her  fine  army  was  starved  and  neglected,  so  that 
it  became  demoralised  and  helpless  to  defend  her 
against  her  foes;  how  corruption  and  the  wholesale 
appropriation  of  public  moneys  by  the  creatures  of 
the  Palace  brought  her  finances  into  so  hopeless  a 
condition  that  she  was  tied  hand  and  foot  by  her 
foreign  creditors,  and  had  therefore  to  submit  to  the 
control  of  several  departments  of  her  internal  admin- 
istration by  commissions  appointed  by  the  Christian 
Powers;  how  justice  was  bought  and  sold,  and  pro- 
motion in  all  the  services  was  awarded  to  the  par- 
asite or  the  highest  bidder;  how,  in  consequence 
of  the  massacres  of  Christians  and  the  impotence  of 
her  Government  to  maintain  order,  Turkish  patriots 
were  humiliated  by  seeing  a  foreign  gendarmerie 
forced  upon  her  by  the  Powers;  how,  in  short,  Tur- 
key became  so  weak  and  effete  that  even  to  her 
friends  her  disintegration  appeared  to  be  the  inevi- 
table end  delayed  only  by  the  jealousy  of  the  rival 
Powers,  who,  fearing  for  what  is  called  "the  balance 
of  power"  in  Europe,  bolstered  up  the  "Sick  Man" 
and  professed  a  desire  to  preserve  the  integrity  of 
the  Ottoman  Empire.  All  these  things  were  re- 
garded with  dismay  by  the  Turks,  and  precipitated 
the  revolution  against  the  Government  responsible 
for  the  rapid  decay  of  the  nation;  but  in  this  chap- 
ter I  will  confine  myself  to  an  account  of  the  par- 
ticular forms  which  the  despotic  oppression  of  the 
36 


THE    SPREAD    OF    CORRUPTION 

Mussulman  Turks  assumed,  until  at  last  that  op- 
pression became  so  insupportable  as  to  goad  into 
rebellion  not  only  the  upper  classes,  but  even  the 
ignorant  Turkish  peasants,  who,  serving  so  patiently 
and  bravely  in  the  army,  had  hitherto  been  ever 
faithful  with  the  faithfulness  of  a  dog  to  the  Sul- 
tan's person. 

The  Sultan  has  proved  himself  to  be  in  many 
respects  a  man  of  great  strength  of  character  and  of 
exceptional  ability;  a  subtle  diplomatist,  he  was  able 
to  play  the  European  Powers  against  each  other; 
and  he  succeeded  in  the  main  object  of  his  life,  cen- 
tralising all  authority  in  himself  at  the  cost  of  inde- 
fatigable personal  labour,  and  making  himself  the 
supreme  master  of  his  country.  He  might  indeed, 
with  his  sagacity,  have  been  an  excellent  monarch 
of  the  despotic  Oriental  type,  working  for  the  good 
of  his  people,  had  it  not  been  for  one  failing  which 
grew  into  an  obsession  and  brought  much  woe  to 
Turkey,  and  this  failing  was  fear.  Abdul  Hamid 
was  haunted  by  a  perpetual  fear  of  assassination; 
he  had  no  trusted  friends,  and  suspected  all  men; 
and  therefore  cowardice,  as  is  always  the  case,  called 
in  cruelty  and  oppression  to  protect  itself.  He  sub- 
ordinated the  welfare  of  his  country  to  his  elaborate 
schemes  for  self-preservation.  He  deliberately  weak- 
ened the  Ottoman  Empire,  dividing  it  against  itself, 
and  demoralised  his  subjects  so  that  there  should  be 
no  element  in  the  State  or  group  of  individuals  strong 
enough  to  attempt  his  overthrow.  Thus  he  stirred 
up  strife  between  the  different  Christian  sects  and 
37 


TURKEY 

inflamed  Mussulman  fanaticism,  so  that  populations 
which  before  his  time  had  lived  side  by  side  in  peace, 
tolerating  if  not  loving  each  other,  fell  upon  each 
other  with  sword  and  fire;  and  when  his  oppressed 
subjects  rebelled  he  quenched  their  spirit  with  dread- 
ful massacres. 

So,  too,  was  it  in  his  deahngs  with  individuals,  in 
the  selection  of  his  creatures  and  in  his  treatment  of 
them.  A  tyrant  who  is  enslaving  his  country  nat- 
urally looks  upon  honest  patriots  with  suspicion  as 
potential  rebels.  He  cannot  well  employ  the  ser- 
vices of  such  men  as  his  advisers  and  ministers.  He 
also  mistrusts  ability,  as  giving  a  power  to  be  danger- 
ous. Thus  Turkish  gentlemen  of  the  ofiicial  class, 
who  possessed  distinction,  brains,  and  probity,  had 
very  little  share  in  the  administration.  The  Cam- 
arilla of  the  Sultan  was  mainly  composed  of  base 
and  illiterate  though  cunning  people;  avaricious  and 
unscrupulous  parasites,  of  whom  the  most  influential 
were  not  Turks,  but  Syrians,  Arabs,  and  Circassians; 
men  who,  being  devoid  of  true  patriotism  and  hav- 
ing the  attainment  of  wealth  as  their  one  aim,  would 
have  no  reason  for  joining  in  a  conspiracy  against  the 
Despotism.  But  the  Sultan  mistrusted  even  these 
ready  instruments  of  his  will.  Having  a  profound 
knowledge  of  the  evil  side  of  human  nature,  he  played 
off  one  creature  against  the  other,  made  them  jeal- 
ous of  each  other,  paid  them  to  spy  upon  each  other, 
prevented  any  sort  of  friendship  between  them,  and 
governed  them  by  terror.  The  Camarilla,  selling 
public  appointments,  spread  the  poison  of  corruption 
38 


THE    SPREAD    OF    CORRUPTION 

that  threatened  to  demorahse  a  whole  people.  To 
quote  the  words  of  a  Young  Turk  writer:  "There 
was  left  in  Turkey  but  one  ideal,  but  one  opening 
for  those  who  aspired,  and  that  was  to  amass 
riches  and  spend  them  in  gross  sensual  amusement. 
But,  for  the  attainment  of  this,  one  had  to  declare 
oneself  the  spy  of  the  Palace,  and  to  give  proofs  of 
one's  servility  by  sacrificing  father,  mother,  brother, 
friends,  principles,  conscience,  all  patriotic  senti- 
ments, and  all  humanity." 

It  is  wonderful  that  there  were  any  honest  men 
holding  high  positions  during  this  period,  but  such 
there  undoubtedly  were,  though  these  were  for  the 
most  part  narrow-minded  fanatics  who  favoured 
Abdul  Hamid's  Pan-Islamic  schemes,  and  were 
pleased  to  co-operate  with  him  in  depriving  the 
Christians  of  what  liberties  they  possessed,  and 
seizing  pretexts  to  massacre  them.  But  to  the  high- 
est offices  of  the  State,  such  as  the  Grand  Vizier- 
ate,  the  Sultan  found  himself  compelled  at  times, 
in  self-defence,  to  appoint  men  of  capacity  and  high 
character;  especially  so  when,  after  happenings  more 
iniquitous  than  usual,  the  relations  between  Tur- 
key and  the  European  Powers  became  dangerously 
strained.  Thus  Kiamil  Pasha,  concerning  whose 
good  work  for  his  country  I  shall  have  to  speak 
later,  was  several  times  Grand  Vizier,  to  be  deposed 
as  soon  as  he  could  be  dispensed  with;  for  he  was 
not  the  man  to  be  obsequious  to  the  despot, 
and  he  was  not  afraid  of  uttering  disagreeable 
truths.  On  the  whole,  however,  conspicuous  ability 
39 


TURKEY 

became  a  disqualiiBcation  for  office  in  Turkey;  and 
for  a  public  man  to  be  popular  was  a  crime. 

In  order  to  insure  their  blind  obedience  to  him 
as  the  Padisha,  it  was  Abdul  Hamid's  aim  to  keep 
his  Mussulman  subjects  in  a  state  of  ignorance. 
He  knew  that  the  liberal  ideas  of  modern  Europe 
had  been  planted  in  Turkey,  and  he  determined  to 
uproot  them,  or  at  any  rate  prevent  their  spread. 
He  endeavoured,  not  without  some  success,  to  cut 
Turkey  off  from  the  influence  of  Western  progress. 
His  subjects,  with  certain  exceptions,  were  not 
permitted  to  travel  in  foreign  countries,  and  even 
their  goings  to  and  fro  within  the  Empire  were 
regarded  with  suspicion.  It  has  been  suggested  that 
he  allowed  his  navy  to  rot  because  he  feared  lest  his 
sailors  should  be  inoculated  with  ideas  about  liberty 
while  visiting  Western  ports;  at  any  rate,  he  appears 
to  have  connived  at  the  embezzlement  by  his  Min- 
ister of  Marine  of  ten  millions  sterling,  which  were 
to  have  been  devoted  to  naval  expenditure.  Realis- 
ing, however,  that  the  preservation  of  the  Empire 
depended  upon  the  reorganisation  of  his  army,  the 
Sultan  was  compelled  to  provide  for  the  education 
of  his  officers,  some  of  whom  were  sent  to  Ger- 
many and  other  foreign  countries,  while  thousands 
were  passed  through  the  Turkish  military  schools  in 
Turkey  itself,  where  they  were  instructed  by  Euro- 
pean teachers.  OflScers  thus  trained,  however,  were 
looked  upon  as  somewhat  dangerous,  and  were 
attached  to  the  Army  Corps  in  various  parts  of  the 
Empire,  but  not  to  that  portion  of  the  Turkish  army 
40 


THE   SPREAD   OF   CORRUPTION 


which  guards  Constantinople,  the  centre  of  the  Des- 
potism, and  the  Sultan's  person;  for  there  the  pam- 
pered fanatical  troops,  faithful  to  their  master,  were 
officered  by  men  who  had  risen  from  the  ranks, 
some  of  whom  could  not  even  read,  but  who  could 
be  relied  upon  to  carry  out  the  orders  given  to  them 
by  the  Palace. 

All  progress  was  paralysed  by  the  fear  that  ruled 
at  the  Palace.  The  introduction  of  typewriters  and 
telephones  as  being  of  possible  use  to  conspirators 
was  prohibited.  The  Press  had  no  liberty;  the  strict- 
est censorship  was  exercised  over  all  printed  matter 
that  came  into  Turkey.  To  be  found  in  possession 
of  a  work  of  Herbert  Spencer's,  for  example,  would 
mean  imprisonment.  The  censor  would  not  consent 
to  the  production  of  "Hamlet"  in  the  theatre, 
because  in  that  play  the  killing  of  a  monarch  is 
represented  on  the  stage. 

Under  the  Hamidian  regime  there  was  of  course  no 
recognition  of  the  inviolability  of  the  domicile.  The 
houses  of  educated  Turks  were  frequently  broken 
into  by  the  police  in  search  of  forbidden  literature. 
To  such  an  extent  was  the  right  of  public  meeting 
denied,  that  it  was  not  safe  for  three  or  four  friends 
to  sit  and  chat  together  in  a  cafe.  A  Turk  could 
not  give  a  dinner-party  in  his  own  house  without 
the  permission  of  the  authorities,  and  even  if  he 
obtained  that  permission,  some  police  agent  would 
likely  as  not  be  sent  to  sit  at  his  table,  as  an  unm- 
vited  and  most  unwelcome  guest,  taking  mental  notes 
of  the  conversation  and  smelling  out  conspiracies. 
41 


TURKEY 

It  was  altogether  a  hideous  system  that  naturally 
bred  all  manner  of  tyrants,  great  and  petty,  who 
being  the  creatures  of  the  Palace  were  enabled  to 
oppress  the  people  with  impunity.  There  was,  for 
example,  the  infamous  Fehim  Pasha,  chief  of  the 
secret  police,  who  abused  his  official  authority  to 
gratify  his  every  whim  and  passion,  plundering  and 
blackmailing  those  whose  possessions  aroused  his 
avarice,  killing  those  who  stood  in  his  way,  and, 
whenever  his  fancy  was  attracted,  forcibly  carrying 
off  to  his  harem  the  wives  and  daughters  of  peace- 
able citizens  —  a  wretch  so  hated  that  so  soon  as 
the  Constitution  was  announced,  the  mob  at  Broussa, 
fearing  him  no  longer,  fell  upon  him  and  tore  him  to 
pieces. 

Then  there  was  the  great  army  of  paid  informers 
who  preyed  upon  the  people.  The  system  of  espion- 
age, which  Abdul  Hamid  in  his  fear  devised  to  pro- 
tect himself  against  conspiracy  and  assassination,  was 
so  oppressive  and  cruel  in  its  working  as  to  render 
almost  insupportable  the  lives  of  such  of  his  subjects 
as  were  regarded  as  suspects  on  account  of  their 
good  birth,  enlightenment,  patriotism,  or  honourable 
character.  The  expenditure  on  this  espionage  some- 
times amounted  to  as  much  as  $10,000,000  a  year. 
The  spies  were  everywhere,  and  were  of  every  rank 
and  condition.  Ministers  were  paid  to  spy  on  each 
other.  A  man's  house-servants,  the  Greek  hotel- 
waiter  who  brought  him  his  cup  of  coffee,  the 
Armenian  dragoman  who  guided  the  simple  foreign 
tourist,  were  paid  to  watch  and  listen  and  send  their 
42 


THE    SPREAD    OF    CORRUPTION 

reports  to  the  Palace.  Spies  would  gain  a  man's 
friendship,  worm  themselves  into  his  confidence, 
and  then  denounce  him.  People  were  sometimes 
betrayed  by  their  own  relations.  All  the  social 
relationships  of  the  family,  the  military  college,  the 
regiment,  and  the  navy  were  undermined;  for  if  the 
Palace  suspected  a  man  it  would  spare  no  effort  to 
buy  the  treason  of  those  nearest  to  him.  There 
was  an  atmosphere  of  terror  and  universal  distrust. 
When  the  spy  system  was  introduced  into  the  army 
it  destroyed  all  esprit  de  corps.  It  became  known 
that  there  were  spies  among  the  officers  of  every 
unit,  whose  business  it  was  to  watch  their  brother 
officers;  with  the  result  that  there  was  no  comrade- 
ship even  among  officers  of  the  same  regiment,  each 
suspecting  the  other  of  being  the  secret  agent  of 
the  Palace;  they  never  messed  together,  and  in 
many  cases  had  never  spoken  to  each  other. 

And  even  the  spies  themselves  had  other  spies  set 
to  spy  upon  them  by  the  all-suspicious  ruler.  The 
Sultan's  spies  were  in  every  foreign  capital  —  some- 
times working  with  its  secret  police  —  to  keep  an 
eye  upon  the  exiles  and  seek  evidence  to  entrap 
friends  of  theirs  in  Turkey  who  might  be  in  com- 
munication with  them.  And  from  this  great  army 
of  spies  a  flood  of  denunciations  poured  into  the 
Palace.  The  denunciations  were  well  paid  for,  so 
the  supply  never  failed,  even  when  the  terrorised 
people  avoided  any  conduct  that  could  be  construed 
into  a  political  offence.  Agents  provocateurs  incited 
men  to  acts  that  would  afford  ground  for  accusation. 
43 


TURKEY 

The  spies  did  not  hesitate  to  bear  false  testimony 
against  the  innocent,  and,  as  in  the  case  of  Midhat 
Pasha,  the  creatures  of  the  Palace,  when  desirous 
of  ruining  some  individual,   employed  wretches  to 
trump  up   the  tale   that   would  condemn  him.     A 
friend  of  mine  suffered  long  imprisonment  because 
the  secret  police  searched  his  house  and  there  pre- 
tended   to    find   compromising   papers    which   they 
themselves  had  forged.     It  is  scarcely  necessary  to 
add  that  vile  people  availed  themselves  of  the  sys- 
tem to  levy  blackmail  by  threatening  denunciation. 
The   denounced   were   often   condemned   without 
any  pretence  of  a  legal  trial.     Many  of  the  best 
men  in  the  country  disappeared  from  their  families 
never  to   return,  their  fate   the  oubliette,  or  death 
by  the  cord,   or  the  traditional  dropping  into  the 
Bosphorus  of  a  sack  containing  the  victim.     Exile 
or  imprisonment  for  a  term  of  years  were  the  pun- 
ishments awarded  for  minor  indiscretions  —  chance 
words  expressing  disapproval  of  the  methods  of  the 
Palace,  or  the  possession  of  a  foreign  paper  of  liberal 
views.     People  were  tortured  in  the  Palace  to  betray 
their  friends  and  relations.     Thousands  of  families 
in  Turkey  have  had  to  mourn  members  torn  away 
after  denunciations  by  the  spies.     After  the  procla- 
mation of  the  Constitution  about  seventy  thousand 
exiles  returned  to  Turkey  from  remote  parts  of  the 
Empire  (the  Siberias  of  Turkey)  and  from  foreign 
countries,  and  how  many  thousands  have  been  put 
to  death  or  have  died  in  captivity  no  man  can  tell. 
I  may  mention  here  that  during  the  latter  ycar:- 
44 


THE    SPREAD    OF    CORRUPTION 

of  the  Hamidian  regime  many  Turks  were  denounced 
and  suffered  because  they  manifested  friendship  for 
the  Enghsh.     The  Turks  are  not  a   fickle  people, 
and  despite  the  thirty  years'  aloofness  of  the  Eng- 
lish through  misconceptions  regarding  the  Turkish 
people,  the  Turks  themselves  have  ever  remained 
faithful  to  their  old  friends,  and  the  present  enthu- 
siasm for   England   is   no  passing  wave.     But   the 
Palace  hated   the   British   Government   which   had 
attempted  to  force  reforms  upon  Turkey,  and  it  sus- 
pected all  Englishmen  of  sharing  the  views  of  the 
Balkan  Committee.     On   the   other   hand,   German 
influence   became   ascendant    at    the   Palace   about 
twelve  years  ago,  and  remained  so  until  the  over- 
throw of  the  Despotism;  for  German  diplomacy  is 
not  sentimental;  it  did  not  worry  the  Palace  with 
humanitarian  pressure  for  the  sake  of  securing  the 
better   government   of   the  unfortunate  subjects  of 
the  Sultan;  and  it  even  assisted  the  Porte  to  thwart 
the  efforts  of  the  other  Powers.     Its  main  object 
was  to  further  German  commercial  interests.     The 
German  Embassy  in  Constantinople  squeezed  con- 
cessions out  of  the  Turkish  Government  by  curious 
methods,  and  knew  well  how  to  make  use  of  Palace 
intrigues  and  corrupt  officialism.     Helped  by  their 
Government,  German  syndicates,  with  cynical  dis- 
regard   of    the   fact   that   they   were   hurrying   the 
country  to  its  ruin,  worked  in  league  with  those  in 
the  Palace,  who  were  ready  to  betray  their  father- 
land for  a  bribe,  and  secured  the  Baghdad  railway 
concession  with  its  iniquitous  kilometric  guarantee, 
45 


TURKEY 

and  other  privileges,  on  terms  far  more  onerous  for 
Turkey  than  could  have  been  obtained  from  other 
quarters,  thus  burdening  the  country  with  unfair 
obligations,  which  now  cripple  her  efforts  for  reform 
and  reorganisation. 

But  I  must  not  digress  into  the  tortuous  ways  of 
Turkish  finance,  which  is  outside  the  scope  of  this 
book.  Suflfice  it  to  say  that  German  influence  at  the 
Palace  undoubtedly  intensified  the  Sultan's  hatred 
of  England,  and  the  obsequious  spies  received  their 
cue.  The  English  in  Turkey  were  in  no  wise  mo- 
lested, but  they  were  declared  taboo  by  the  author- 
ities. For  a  Turk  even  to  be  seen  talking  to  an 
Englishman  was  dangerous.  Turks  feared  to  look 
towards  the  English  Embassy  as  they  passed  it. 
They  were  forbidden  to  visit  certain  English  estab- 
lishments, such  as  the  English  book-shop  in  Pera,  and 
the  quaint  old  inn  in  Galata,  built  long  ago  by  the 
Genoese,  where,  with  a  retired  British  sea-captain 
as  host,  naval  officers,  British  and  Turkish,  had 
been  wont  to  foregather  in  good  fellowship.  The 
spies  were  busily  employed  in  denouncing  such  Turks 
as  were  supposed  to  be  Anglophil.  A  friend  of  mine, 
who  at  that  time  held  a  good  appointment  and 
enjoyed  a  large  income,  was  reported  by  the  spies  as 
having  intrigued  to  bring  the  British  fleet  to  Con- 
stantinople. He  was  imprisoned  for  five  years.  He 
was  released  with  all  other  political  prisoners  after 
the  successful  revolution,  and  came  back  to  the 
world  to  find  himself  penniless ;  to  learn  that  his  w  ife, 
having  first  become  blind  from  unceasing  weeping, 
46 


THE    SPREAD   OF   CORRUPTION 

had  died  practically   in  a   starving  condition,   and 
that  his  children  were  living  on  charity. 

It  ought  not  to  be  forgotten  by  Englishmen  that 
when  they  were  engaged  in  their  last  war  with  the 
Boers,  and  all  Europe  was  reviling  them,  the  Turks 
alone  —  and  notably  those  of  the  educated  classes 
who  now  rule  the  country  as  the  Young  Turk  party 
—  were  in  sympathy  with  them,  and  some  of  them 
suffered  in  consequence.  A  number  of  young  officers 
of  the  army  and  navy,  and  others,  put  their  names 
to  a  document  in  which  they  expressed  their  hope 
that  the  British  arms  would  prove  successful  in  South 
Africa,  and  this  they  carried  to  the  British  Embassy 
to  present  to  the  English  Ambassador.  The  Palace 
heard  of  this;  the  spies  were  set  to  work  to  ascertain 
what  names  appeared  upon  the  incriminating  docu- 
ment, and  one  by  one  every  one  of  these  men  dis- 
appeared, being  snatched  up  to  be  put  into  prison, 
or  to  be  sent  into  exile.  One  of  these  young  officers, 
Sirret  Bey,  escaped  from  those  who  arrested  him, 
hid  himself  for  some  time  in  the  guise  of  a  cook  in 
the  British  Consulate,  and  is  now  one  of  the  leading 
members  of  the  Committee  of  Union  and  Progress 
in  Salonika. 

This  dreadful  system  of  espionage  and  the  sup- 
pression of  all  intellectual  liberty  fell  harder  on  the 
educated  Mussulmans  than  on  the  Christian  subjects 
of  the  Sultan,  for  despotism  had  no  such  fear  of  the 
Greek  or  Armenian  as  it  had  of  the  patriotic  Turk, 
and  the  Christians  therefore  were  not  so  closely 
watched  and  had  more  chance  of  public  appoint- 
47 


r 


TURKEY 


ment.  The  Christians  also  had  one  important  advan- 
tage over  the  Mussulman  Turks  in  so  much  as 
their  privileges  allowed  them  to  establish  schools 
uncontrolled  by  the  State,  which  provided  a  more 
liberal  education  than  was  possible  in  the  Moslem 
schools.  It  can  be  readily  understood,  therefore, 
how  patriotic  Turks  of  the  upper  and  middle  classes, 
ground  down  under  this  tyranny  that  gave  them  no 
voice  in  the  administration  and  placed  over  them 
mean  men  who  were  hurrying  the  country  to  its 
destruction,  were  prepared  to  join  in  any  movement 
that  promised  a  fair  chance  of  overthrowing  the 
Hamidian  regime. 

It  is  also  easy  to  understand  that  the  Christians, 
who  during  this  reign  were  deprived  of  some  of  their 
ancient  rights,  who  were  treated  with  a  more  galling 
contumely  than  ever  before,  as  a  subject  and  despised 
people,  and  lived  in  perpetual  dread  of  massacre  and 
outrage,  welcomed  the  revolution  that  placed  them 
on  an  equality  with  the  Mussulmans;  but  how  it 
came  to  pass  that  the  Despotism  became  so  intol- 
erable to  the  masses  of  the  Turkish  people  as  to 
excite  to  rebellion  even  the  patient,  religious  Moslem 
peasants,  who  had  hitherto  revered  the  Sultan  as 
their  spiritual  ruler  as  well  as  their  monarch,  and 
had  been  blindly  and  fanatically  obedient  to  his  will, 
requires  some  explanation.  The  thrifty,  hard-work- 
ing Turkish  peasants  suffered  as  much  as  the  Chris- 
tians from  the  evils  of  the  administration;  they  paid 
the  same  hea\'y  taxes,  and,  like  their  Christian  neigh- 
bours, they  were  cheated  by  the  tax-collectors,  being 
48 


THE   SPREAD   OF   CORRUPTION 

often  illegally  mulcted  and  most  harshly  treated 
by  petty  tyrants.  The  provincial  oflBcials  did  not 
receive  their  pay  regularly,  and  so  recouped  them- 
selves by  corrupt  practices.  Thus  the  rich,  by  paying 
bribes,  succeeded  in  many  cases  in  avoiding  taxation 
altogether,  and  many  unfair  exemptions  were  allowed; 
with  the  result  that  in  some  places  nearly  all  the 
burden  of  taxation  fell  upon  the  poor.  The  peas- 
ants were  shrewd  enough  to  perceive  that  the  money 
thus  wrung  from  them  did  not  produce  any  good  for 
themselves  or  their  country,  but  went  to  enrich  the 
ruling  clique,  and  that  Constantinople  swallowed  up 
the  huge  sums  that  were  collected  in  every  part  of 
the  Empire.  They  knew  that  there  were  Ministries 
established  in  costly  palaces  and  maintaining  a  large 
number  of  well-paid  officials,  while  the  result  of  this 
extravagant  expenditure  was  not  anywhere  to  be 
seen.  Thus  there  was  a  Ministry  of  Public  Works, 
but  there  were  no  roads  or  irrigation  works;  a  Min- 
istry of  Police,  but  no  protection  of  life  and  property; 
a  Ministry  of  Justice,  and  no  justice;  a  Ministry  of 
War,  and  a  starved  army. 

But  the  stoical  Mussulman  peasants,  whose  faith- 
fulness is  as  that  of  a  dog,  were  loth  to  think  ill  of 
their  Sultan,  and  they  put  the  blame  upon  his  Min- 
isters as  doing  wrong  without  his  knowledge.  Op- 
pression and  unjust  taxation  by  themselves  would 
not  have  driven  these  people  into  revolt,  and  the 
Young  Turk  movement  would  have  had  small 
chance  of  success,  had  not  Abdul  Hamid  neglected  to 
secure  —  what  would  have  been  so  easy  to  secure — 
49 


TURKEY 

the  continued  fidelity  and  affection  of  his  army,  of 
which  the  splendid  peasantry  of  the  country  form 
the  backbone.  I  have  explained  that  the  Sultan 
was  careful  to  pamper  the  Albanian  and  other  regi- 
ments that  were  stationed  in  Constantinople  to  pro- 
tect his  person,  overawe  the  city,  and  preserve  the 
Despotism;  and  he  saw  to  it  that  these  men  duly 
received  their  pay,  were  well  fed  and  properly  clothed. 
But  with  this  exception  the  mihtary  administra- 
tion of  the  Empire  was  left  wholly  in  the  hands  of 
the  Palace  favourites,  who,  with  their  character- 
istic greed  and  total  lack  of  patriotic  sentiment, 
enriched  themselves  at  the  expense  of  the  national 
defence  and,  with  a  callous  indifference  to  the  suffer- 
ings of  the  men,  practically  starved  the  army. 

In  Turkey,  the  burden  of  obligatory  service  is 
placed  exclusively  on  the  Mussulman  population, 
the  Christians  up  till  now  having  enjoyed  complete 
exemption,  in  return  for  which  they  have  paid  a 
small  poll-tax.  The  Turkish  soldier  is  among  the 
toughest  as  well  as  the  bravest  in  the  world,  and  he 
will  undergo  great  hardships  uncomplainingly;  but 
there  are  limits  even  to  his  endurance.  It  would 
be  diflBcult  to  exaggerate  the  pitiable  condition  of 
these  fine  troops,  as  I  have  often  seen  them  in  pro- 
vincial garrisons  and  posts  in  the  days  of  the  old 
regime.  They  never  received  their  full  rations; 
sometimes  they  were  in  a  starving  condition;  they 
were  ill-clothed  even  when  guarding  the  frontier 
through  the  hard  Balkan  winters;  often  in  rags  and 
tatters,  with  what  remained  of  their  uniforms  sup- 
50 


THE    SPREAD    OF    CORRUPTION 

plemented  with  such  native  garments  as  they  could 
pick  up;  their  small  pay  was  always  in  arrears;  they 
were  untrained  and  undisciplined  —  a  pitiful  waste 
of  the  finest  military  material  in  Europe;  and  the 
officers  themselves  irregularly  paid,  slovenly,  because 
they  had  no  means  to  procure  the  decencies  of  life, 
and  estranged  one  from  the  other  by  the  hateful  spy 
system,  were  in  no  condition  to  inspire  their  men 
with  the  high  spirit  and  esprit  de  corps  that  used  to 
distinguish  the  Turkish  army.  But  despite  all  this, 
when  fighting  had  to  be  done  these  men  remembered 
that  they  were  Turkish  soldiers,  and  fought  well. 

The  Turkish  soldier  might  even  have  put  up  with 
all  this  during  his  four  years  of  service  with  the 
colours,  for  it  takes  much  to  rouse  him  to  mutiny ; 
but  his  oppression  took  one  form  that  was  intolerable 
to  him  and  to  his  family;  the  iniquitous  custom  grew 
up  of  keeping  him  with  the  army  for  several  years 
after  his  term  of  service  had  legally  expired;  and  the 
reservists  also,  when  called  out'  for  their  periodical 
training,  were  not  infrequently  carried  off  to  remote 
parts  of  the  Empire  and  compelled  to  resume  their 
military  service  for  an  indefinite  time.  The  worst  lot 
of  all  was  that  of  regiments  ordered  to  the  Hedjaz 
or  the  Yemen.  In  those  wild  regions  the  wretched 
troops,  ill-equipped,  with  wholly  inadequate  trans- 
port, and  therefore  always  short  of  food,  and  gener- 
ally provided  with  insuflScient  ammunition,  had  to 
carry  on  long  campaigns  against  the  rebel  Arabs. 
They  thus  suffered  great  privations,  and  were  not  sel- 
dom defeated  and  massacred  in  consequence  of  the 
51 


TURKEY 

criminal  negligence  of  Turkey's  rulers.  Educated 
surgeons  were  rarely  attached  to  these  expeditions, 
and  I  have  been  assured  by  old  soldiers,  who  had 
served  in  Arabia,  that  if  a  man  was  sick  or  wounded, 
so  that  he  was  unable  to  march,  there  was  httle 
chance  for  him,  as  there  were  no  means  for  carrying 
him;  and  that  in  these  circumstances  the  ignorant 
and  ill-paid  men  who  played  the  part  of  army  doc- 
tors, after  pretending  to  examine  a  man,  would  de- 
clare that  he  was  in  a  dying  condition,  and  had  him 
buried  in  the  sand  while  yet  alive.  It  often  hap- 
pened, too,  that  soldiers  in  Arabia,  when  they  did  get 
their  discharge  —  probably  because  they  were  unfit 
for  further  service  —  were  refused  transport  back  to 
Turkey  on  the  Government  ships,  and,  being  penni- 
less, had  to  remain  in  that  alien  land  until  charitable 
people,  of  whom  there  are  happily  plenty  among  the 
Turks,  came  to  their  rescue.  A  friend  of  mine,  who 
was  recently  British  consul  in  a  Turkish  port,  after 
careful  investigation  in  his  particular  district,  found 
that  not  more  than  twenty  per  cent,  of  the  soldiers 
who  were  sent  to  the  Yemen  returned  to  their  homes. 
Whenever  conscripts  were  carried  away  for  service 
in  that  dreaded  land  there  were  piteous  scenes,  and 
crowds  of  wailing  women  would  come  to  the  ship's 
side  to  bid  a  last  farewell  to  the  relatives  whom  they 
never  expected  to  see  again,  and  already  mourned 
as  dead. 

Under  this  shocking  system  of  military  maladmin- 
istration there  was  a  great  waste  of  Turkey's  young 
manhood.     The  rate  of  mortality  in  the  army  was 
52 


THE   SPREAD   OF  CORRUPTION 

excessive,  and  this  was  one  of  the  principal  causes 
of  the  standstill  in  the  numbers  of  this,  the  finest 
peasantry  in  Europe,  as  compared  with  the  rapid  in- 
crease of  the  exempted  Christian  population .  These 
conscripts,  when  they  were  torn  from  their  homes, 
often  left  behind  them  wives  and  families  dependent 
on  them,  so  the  whole  Mussulman  people  suffered 
greatly  through  the  vile  treatment  of  the  army,  that 
was  the  best  part  of  itself  and  in  which  every  one 
had  relatives;  and  at  last  it  came  about  that  even 
the  faithful  peasantry  lost  its  loyalty,  and,  like  the 
Moslems  of  the  higher  classes,  was  ready  to  rise  and 
sweep  away  the  intolerable  Despotism. 


53 


CHAPTER  V 

THE  SPREAD  OF  EDUCATION 

FOR  the  last  few  years  —  that  is,  ever  since  the 
victorious  war  waged  by  Japan  against  Rus- 
sia demonstrated  to  the  peoples  of  the  East 
that  an  Oriental  country  could  break  away  from  the 
conservative  traditions  that  oppose  progress,  and 
make  itself  respected  as  one  of  the  great  civilised 
powers  of  the  world  —  a  remarkable  growth  of 
nationalism  throughout  Asia  has  attracted  the  close 
attention  of  observers  in  Europe.  The  East  that 
gave  the  West  its  early  civilisation  is  now  taking 
its  political  ideals  from  the  West.  In  India,  China, 
Persia,  and  Egypt  national  parties  have  risen  whose 
aim  it  is  to  free  their  countries  either  from  native 
despotism  or  from  European  tutelage,  and  to  intro- 
duce forms  of  self-government  modelled  on  those  of 
modern  Europe.  But  though  much  has  been  written 
and  said  concerning  the  awakening  of  the  popula- 
tions of  the  above-mentioned  countries,  it  is  curious 
that  there  was  no  talk  of  any  political  movement 
in  Turkey,  the  nearest  to  Europe  of  the  Eastern 
nations,  until  July,  1907,  when  the  world  was  sud- 
denly amazed  to  learn  that  what  appeared  to  be  an 
unpremeditated  military  mutiny  in  Macedonia  had 
54 


THE    SPREAD    OF    EDUCATION 

compelled  the  Sultan  to  grant  a  Constitution  to  his 
country. 

This  Moslem  revolution,  that  had  been  so  long 
preparing  and  was  so  well  organised,  came  as  a  com- 
plete surprise  even  to  such  European  residents  as 
knew  the  country  best,  including  the  Ambassadors  of 
the  Powers  in  Constantinople  and  their  Consular  rep- 
resentatives throughout  the  Empire.  None  of  these 
gave  any  warning  to  their  respective  Governments 
of  what  was  coming.  None  of  the  newspaper  corre- 
spondents in  Turkey,  none  of  the  globe-trotting 
M.P.s  and  members  of  the  Balkan  Committee  who 
were  seeking  an  understanding  of  Turkish  affairs  on 
the  spot,  had  any  inkling  of  the  wide-spread  conspir- 
acy that  was  to  upset  the  Despotism  with  its  first 
blow.  It  had  been  long  known,  of  course,  that 
there  existed  a  group  of  exiled  politicians  who  called 
themselves  the  "Young  Turkish  Party."  But  this 
party  was  not  taken  seriously,  for  its  critics  little 
knew  that  it  represented  all  that  was  intelligent  and 
enlightened  in  Turkey.  It  was  regarded  as  a  little 
band  of  mad  anarchists,  or  at  best  of  foolish  vision- 
aries. An  ambassador  described  the  movement  as 
*' innocuous,"  while  some  regarded  it  as  "bogus," 
and  denied  even  the  virtue  of  sincerity  to  these 
patriots.  It  was  written  of  them  in  an  authorita- 
tive work  that  "a  large  proportion  of  them  had  gone 
into  an  exile  with  the  express  object  of  being  per- 
suaded to  return,"  that  is,  of  being  reclaimed  by  the 
Sultan's  bribes.  An  Englishman  who  has  lived  all 
his  life  in  Turkey  thus  summed  up  his  opinion: 
55 


TURKEY 

"The  Young  Turkey  association  —  lacking,  as  it 
does,  pecuniary  resources,  cohesion,  definite  purpose, 
and  capable  leaders,  has  not  shown  itself  a  formi- 
dable organisation."  Our  humanitarian  agitators  had 
a  complete  misapprehension  of  the  aim  of  the  move- 
ment, and  were  apparently  convinced  that  no  good 
thing  would  come  from  the  modern  Turks.  But  the 
Young  Turks  all  the  while  knew  what  they  were 
about,  what  they  wanted,  and  how  to  set  to  work 
to  get  it;  and  the  organisation  that  for  years  was 
preparing  the  revolution  worked  so  secretly  as  to 
conceal  the  importance  of  the  movement  from  the 
Palace  spies  themselves. 

No  great  political  movement  can  be  of  sudden 
growth  if  it  is  going  to  meet  with  permanent  success, 
and  though  the  ultimate  explosion  may  take  by  sur- 
prise those  outside  the  movement,  the  revolution  of 
a  serious  people  is  the  result  of  long  brooding  and 
gradual  development  of  opinion.  From  the  time  of 
the  Sultan  Mahmud  II,  who  ascended  the  throne 
one  hundred  years  ago,  the  better  and  more  patriotic 
statesmen  of  Turkey  have  made  efforts  to  bring  the 
system  of  government  into  accord  with  the  methods 
of  advancing  Europe.  The  influence  of  Western 
ideas  made  themselves  felt  throughout  European 
Turkey,  and  began  to  modify  the  intellectual  out- 
look, the  ideals,  and  the  social  customs  of  the  edu- 
cated classes.  The  change,  as  I  have  pointed  out  in 
a  previous  chapter,  was  reflected  in  Turkish  litera- 
ture, which  about  forty  years  ago  became  Western 
in  sentiment  and  style,  and  the  literary  language 
56 


THE    SPREAD    OF    EDUCATION 

itself  was  modernised  by  a  group  of  writers  of  whom 
Kemal  Bey,  historian,  poet,  philosopher,  dramatist, 
and  novelist,  was  pre-eminent,  a  genius  whose  works, 
published  in  Europe,  were  not  allowed  to  enter  Tur- 
key during  the  Hamidian  regime,  but  whose  splendid 
war  hymn,  the  "SiHstria,"  the  penalty  for  singing 
which  was  formerly  death,  now  has  the  same  stir- 
ring effect  upon  the  revolutionary  Moslem  crowds 
as  had  the  "Marseillaise"  upon  the  French.  As  the 
facilities  for  education,  the  schools  and  colleges, 
multiplied  in  Turkey,  the  thirst  for  scientific  knowl- 
edge and  the  culture  of  Western  Europe  spread 
through  the  country,  and  with  enhghtenment  and 
education  naturally  came  the  liberalism  of  the  West 
and  intellectual  revolt  against  the  paralysing  in- 
fluence of  some  time-honoured  institutions  and 
doctrines. 

It  is  scarcely  accurate  in  these  days  to  speak  of 
the  Turks  —  as  one  often  hears  them  spoken  of  — 
as  the  finest  of  Oriental  races.  The  Turks  have  been 
five  hundred  years  in  Europe,  during  which  they 
have  intermarried  largely  with  Europeans,  and  they 
are  now  to  all  intents  and  purposes  Europeans,  more 
so,  indeed,  than  some  of  their  neighbours  on  the 
continent  of  Europe  itself,  a  fact  which  would  be 
more  generally  recognised  were  it  not  for  the  barrier 
raised  between  them  by  the  difference  of  religion. 
Thus  it  has  come  about  that  the  modernist  move- 
ment in  Turkey  is  much  more  in  touch  with  Western 
ideas  than  is  that  of  the  other  awakening  peoples  of 
the  East,  who  differ  so  much  from  Europeans  in  race 
57 


TURKEY 

and  character,  and  whose  awakening  has  to  a  large 
extent  taken  the  form  of  antagonism  to  European 
influence  and  a  desire  to  free  themselves  from  the 
European  hegemony.  On  the  other  hand,  the  Turk- 
ish reformers  wish  to  attach  the  Turkish  race  to 
Europe  and  not  to  Asia;  their  sympathies  and  culture 
are  now  Western  and  not  Eastern;  they  wish  Turkey 
to  be  recognised  as  one  of  the  civilised  countries  of 
Europe. 

It  is  partly  on  this  account,  too,  that  the  Young 
Turks  have  repudiated  Pan-Islamism,  the  form  which 
the  modern  awakening  of  the  Moslem  nationalities 
has  taken  in  some  parts  of  the  Eastern  world  —  that 
combination  of  Mohammedans  of  all  races  to  resist 
the  Christian  nations,  of  which,  as  I  have  explained, 
Abdul  Hamid  himself  was  an  advocate.  It  was  a 
movement,  which,  if  successful,  might  have  restored 
to  Islam  its  glory  and  its  conquering  might,  but  it 
would  have  brought  with  it  the  recrudescence  of  re- 
ligious fanaticism  and  the  impossibility  of  progress 
on  modern  lines. 

The  views  of  the  Young  Turkey  party  on  this 
subject  were  thus  expressed  by  one  of  their  organs: 
"We  Ottomans  belong  to  a  race  sufficiently  intelli- 
gent and  practical  to  understand  that  the  pursuit 
of  the  Pan-Islamic  designs  of  the  visionaries  would 
be  contrary  to  our  dearest  interests.'*  The  Young 
Turk  is  a  patriot  whose  first  thought  is  for  his 
own  fatherland;  he  is  working  for  its  liberation 
and  its  progress,  and  hopes  to  make  it  again  strong 
and  respected  of  the  nations.  But  Pan-Islamism  he 
58 


THE    SPREAD    OF    EDUCATION 

leaves  alone,  and  it  will  be  remembered  that  the 
Turkish  Constitutional  party  gave  no  encourage- 
ment to  the  Egyptian  Nationalists,  whose  aspirations 
have  a  Pan-Islamic  character. 

On  the  other  hand,  the  Young  Turks  have  made 
it  clear  that  theirs  is  not  an  irreligious  movement, 
and  that  Moslem  fanatics  cannot  with  justice  accuse 
them  of  holding  the  rationalistic  views  of  the  French 
revolutionaries,  and  of  being  bad  Mussulmans. 
Writers  have  described  this  as  a  party  of  agnostics. 
This  is  an  incorrect  statement,  and  were  it  believed 
by  the  Turkish  people  the  Constitution  would  have 
but  a  short  life.  There  are,  of  course,  some  Young 
Turks  who,  during  their  exile  in  Paris  and  other 
European  cities,  have  acquired  rationalistic  views; 
but  the  great  bulk  of  them  are  faithful  Moslems. 
There  have  been  at  times  agnostics  in  the  English 
Parliament,  but  it  would  not  be  fair  on  that  ac- 
count to  dub  England  a  nation  of  unbelievers.  The 
Young  Turkish  movement,  indeed,  far  from  being 
irreligious,  is  tempered  with  the  faith  of  Islam; 
but,  as  a  French  writer  recently  put  it,  with  these 
reformers  Islamism  is  a  motive  and  not  an  end. 

But  the  Mohammedanism  of  the  enlightened 
Turks  who  compose  the  Young  Turk  party  is  a  very 
different  thing  to  the  fanatical  and  narrow  creed  of 
the  Arab;  for  it  is  wholly  and  sincerely  tolerant. 
There  has  been  an  awakening  of  the  religion  of  Islam 
itself,  and  it  is  now  being  proved  to  an  astonished 
world  that  the  ancient  dogmas  of  Mohammedanism 
are  no  more  immutable  than  those  of  other  creeds. 
59 


TURKEY 

Even  as  the  Christianity  of  the  Middle  Ages,  which 
burnt  heretics  and  regarded  science  as  the  invention 
of  the  devil,  has  adapted  itself  to  modern  ideas, 
so  at  last  has  it  come  to  pass  with  the  supposed 
unchangeable  doctrines  of  the  Moslem  Church. 
Enlightened  Mussulmans  are  doing  their  best  to 
bring  their  religion  into  conformity  with  modern 
ideas  and  the  progress  of  an  enfranchised  people. 
In  India,  Persia,  and  Turkey  learned  doctors  of  the 
sacred  law  are  showing  that  many  accepted  doctrines 
are  not  enjoined  by  the  Koran  itself,  but  have  been 
grafted  on  the  religion  by  various  commentators; 
and  therefore,  even  as  the  Reformation  in  Europe 
rejected  much  that  had  been  superimposed  on  prim- 
itive Christianity  and  went  straight  back  to  the 
Bible,  so  does  the  present  Moslem  reformation  reject 
many  of  the  commentaries  and  go  straight  back  to 
the  Koran,  bringing  new  interpretations  to  bear 
upon  the  Book  itself,  with  the  result  that  the  doctors 
have  been  able  to  prove  that  the  strictest  Mussul- 
man can  reconcile  it  with  his  conscience  to  accept 
the  Constitution,  that  Islam  is  essentially  liberal  and 
democratic,  that  to  remove  oppression  and  corrup- 
tion is  to  obey  the  teachings  of  the  Koran,  and  that 
the  granting  of  equal  rights  to  Christians  and  Mus- 
sulmans —  a  reform  which  was  the  stumbling-block 
to  many  Mohammedans  —  is  in  no  wise  opposed  to 
the  injunctions  of  the  Prophet. 

The  Young  Turk  movement  is  therefore  Nation- 
alist and  not  Pan-Islamic,  and  the  policy  of  these 
reformers    is    opportunist.     Liberal-minded    them- 
60 


THE    SPREAD    OF    EDUCATION 

selves,  they  have  had  to  bear  in  mind  that  Turkey- 
in-Asia  holds  some  of  the  most  conservative  and 
fanatical  Moslems  in  the  world;  so  they  had  to  go 
delicately  to  work  when  they  began  necessarily  to 
interfere  with  some  cherished  traditions.  The  exile 
of  these  young  men  afforded  them  the  opportunity 
of  getting  into  contact  with  educated  Indian  and 
other  Mussulmans,  learned  in  Moslem  law,  from 
whom  they  received  considerable  assistance.  It  will 
be  remembered  that  the  Sheikh-ul-Islam,  as  repre- 
sentative of  the  mollahs  and  the  interpreters  of  the 
Koran  in  Turkey,  gave  the  Young  Turk  movement 
the  sanction  of  the  faith,  rebuked  the  fanatics  who 
had  preached  against  reform  as  being  irreligious,  and 
compelled  them  to  stay  their  mischievous  vapour- 
ings.  Had  it  not  been  for  this  support  the  revolu- 
tion would  have  been  impossible.  But  it  may  not 
be  generally  known  that  the  theological  arguments 
which  convinced  the  Sheikh-ul-Islam  that  this  was 
the  right  attitude  to  take  were  drawn  up  for  him  by 
a  faithful  subject  of  King  Edward  VII,  Ameer  Ali, 
ex-judge  of  the  High  Court  in  India,  and  a  learned 
exponent  of  Moslem  thought  and  tradition.  It  was 
Ameer  Ali  who  recently  introduced  the  deputations 
of  Indians  that  waited  on  Lord  Morley  to  plead  the 
cause  of  the  Moslems  in  India  who,  by  the  scheme 
proposed  by  the  Government,  were  not  to  be  given 
due  representation  on  the  Councils. 

The  awakening  of  Turkey,  the  growth  of  liberalism, 
and  the  thirst  for  knowledge  among  the  educated 
Turks,  including  even  the  Ulemas,  whom  the  world 
61 


TURKEY 

regarded  as  the  most  narrow-minded  of  Mussulman 
conservatives,  were  largely  encouraged  by  the  very 
measures  which  Abdul  Hamid  had  taken  to  suppress 
these  ideas  and  movements  so  dangerous  to  his  des- 
potism. Men  of  ability,  being  suspected  by  the  Pal- 
ace, and  living  in  perpetual  dread  of  the  espionage 
which  enveloped  them  like  some  hideous  nightmare, 
were  unable  to  associate  with  each  other  freely,  and 
had  to  live  isolated  lives,  the  tedium  of  which  they 
relieved  by  reading,  with  a  greater  avidity  than  is 
displayed  in  other  countries,  where  men  have  wider 
scope  for  their  intellectual  energies,  works  on  history, 
philosophy,  and  law,  and  other  literature  which  were 
smuggled  into  Turkey  across  her  land  and  sea  fron- 
tiers. In  latter  days  the  Turkish  exiles  in  Europe 
succeeded  in  pouring  prohibited  literature  whole- 
sale into  Turkey,  but  at  first  the  supply  was  small; 
one  book,  passed  secretly  from  one  man  to  another, 
would  be  read  by  hundreds,  and  young  men  greedy 
for  instruction  even  went  to  the  pains  of  copying  out 
with  their  own  hands  bulky  volumes  which  they  had 
borrowed.  Many  a  man  who  considers  himself  to 
be  well  read  would  feel  ashamed  on  discovering  how 
much  wider  than  his  own  is  the  knowledge  of  English 
literature  possessed  by  some  of  his  friends  among 
the  Young  Turks.  The  Sultan,  too,  unintentionally, 
spread  far  and  wide  the  very  influences  which  it  was 
his  desire  to  destroy,  for  by  driving  thousands  of 
educated  men  out  of  Constantinople  into  exile  in 
various  provinces  of  his  Empire,  he  made  of  these, 
missionaries  of  enlightenment,  liberalism,  and  political 
62 


THE    SPREAD    OF    EDUCATION 

discontent.  Those  also  who  were  exiled  to  foreign 
countries  and  lived  in  Paris  and  other  Western  capi- 
tals came  under  the  immediate  influence  of  modern 
ideas,  and,  communicating  with  their  friends  in  Tur- 
key, inoculated  them  with  their  own  views.  Thus 
it  came  about  that  the  whole  Empire  was  gradually 
leavened  with  dissatisfaction  with  the  Sultan's  rule, 
and  the  ground  was  prepared  for  the  revolution. 


63 


CHAPTER  VI 

TEE  RISE  OF  THE  YOUNG  TURKS 

IT  is  about  forty  years  since  one  first  heard  of 
a  Young  Turk  party.  Abd-ul-Aziz,  having 
broken  the  early  promises  of  his  reign,  had 
made  himself  the  absolute  despot,  and  had  crushed 
the  liberalism  that  from  the  time  of  Mahmud  II  had 
been  gaining  ground  in  Turkey.  A  number  of  edu- 
cated men  then  fled  from  the  country  to  Paris  and 
London,  and,  calling  themselves  the  "Young  Turks," 
started  a  movement  whose  object  it  was  to  agitate 
for  the  introduction  of  reforms  into  the  government 
of  their  native  land.  Among  them  were  men  of 
great  ability,  including  the  illustrious  Kemal  Bey; 
and  all  the  Turkish  literature  of  that  period  that  had 
any  value  was  produced  by  this  group  of  "intellec- 
tuals." They  published  a  paper  called  the  Hurriet, 
which  is  the  Turkish  word  for  liberty,  in  which  they 
exposed  in  an  unsparing  fashion  the  corruption,  inca- 
pacity, and  lack  of  patriotism  of  the  high  officials 
and  advisers  of  the  Sultan.  The  outspoken  Hurriet 
alarmed  the  Palace,  and  was  of  course  placed  on  the 
black  list;  but  it  was  smuggled  into  the  country,* 
exercised  a  great  influence,  and  effected  its  purpose  of 
spreading  antagonism  to  the  existing  state  of  things. 
64 


RISE    OF    THE    YOUNG    TURKS 

Liberalism,  as  we  have  seen,  waxed  strong  enough 
to  have  its  way  for  a  short  period  in  Turkey.  Abd- 
ul-Aziz was  deposed,  and  Midhat  Pasha  and  the 
patriotic  statesmen  who  were  his  associates  began  to 
introduce  their  reforms.  Many  of  the  Young  Turks 
returned  from  Europe  to  support  the  new  Consti- 
tutional Government,  some  sitting  in  the  short-lived 
Parliament  which  the  present  Sultan  opened  on  his 
accession  to  the  throne. 

Those  who  loved  Turkey  thought  that  the  day  of 
her  regeneration  had  dawned  at  last;  but  the  dis- 
illusionment soon  came,  for  Abdul  Hamid,  in  the 
spring  of  1878,  dissolved  the  Parhament,  suspended 
the  Constitution,  and  commenced  his  ruthless  per- 
secution of  liberalism.  So  the  Young  Turks  were 
once  again  scattered  over  the  face  of  the  earth; 
some  were  imprisoned;  some  were  exiled  to  distant 
provinces  of  the  Empire;  some  escaped  to  Europe; 
and  such  as  were  allowed  to  remain  in  Turkey  as 
free  men,  had  to  conduct  themselves  warily  and  shun 
politics,  living  as  they  did  under  the  sleepless  eyes 
of  the  ubiquitous  espionage. 

For  about  fifteen  years  after  this  date  one  heard 
nothing  of  the  Young  Turkey  movement.  If  it 
existed  it  had  little  if  any  organisation,  and  had  no 
power.  To  all  appearances  it  had  been  stamped  out 
effectually  by  the  suppressive  measures  that  had 
been  taken  by  the  Palace.  One  came  across  mem- 
bers of  the  scattered  band  in  European  cities,  earning 
their  living  as  teachers  of  languages  and  in  other 
capacities,  but  these  rarely  spoke  to  foreigners  of 
65 


TURKEY 

what  was  in  their  hearts,  for  they  found  few  sympa- 
thisers with  the  sorrows  of  Turkey. 

But  though  "Young  Turkey"  showed  no  signs  of 
Hfe  it  was  not  dead.  In  Constantinople  and  other 
big  Turkish  cities  the  visitor  from  Europe  would 
never  hear  the  movement  spoken  of;  the  word  hur- 
riet  was,  so  to  speak,  expunged  from  the  Turkish 
dictionary,  and  to  have  been  heard  uttering  it  would 
have  brought  denunciation  as  a  traitor.  But  in  far 
parts  of  the  Empire  tongues  wagged  more  freely,  and 
the  memory  of  the  reformers  was  kept  green.  In  the 
autumn  and  winter  of  1879  I  was  wandering  over 
that  wildest  region  of  all  Europe,  Northern  Albania, 
and  there  I  found  that  men  were  speaking  very 
plainly  indeed;  for  the  espionage  system  was  not 
then  fully  organised,  and  at  any  rate  it  had  not 
reached  that  lawless  province,  where  the  Government 
was  helpless,  and  inspired  neither  respect  or  fear. 

At  the  period  of  my  visit,  Albania,  a  country  which, 
as  I  shall  show  later,  took  a  prominent  part  in 
the  recent  revolution,  was  in  a  state  of  positive 
anarchy  —  the  gendarmerie  on  strike,  the  mutinous 
soldiers  refusing  to  salute  their  officers,  neither  hav- 
ing received  pay  for  months,  while  the  natives  held 
seditious  meetings  publicly  and  unmolested  in  the 
mosques  of  the  garrison  towns,  in  which  rebellion 
against  the  Porte  was  fearlessly  advocated.  The 
army  officers  with  whom  I  conversed  despaired  of 
their  country,  and  those  who  had  been  in  Constan- 
tinople said  that  the  one  hope  for  Turkey  —  an  ad- 
ministration under  the  direction  of  men  of  Midhat 
66 


RISE    OF    THE    YOUNG    TURKS 

Pasha's  stamp  —  had  been  destroyed.  The  army 
doctors  in  Scutari  —  for  the  most  part  Armenians  — 
were  still  more  outspoken,  and  advocated  the  depo- 
sition and  even  killing  of  the  Sultan.  One  of  these 
doctors  described  the  condition  of  the  country  to  me 
in  the  following  words:  "You  have  no  idea  of  what 
a  corrupt,  vile  thing  this  Turkish  Government  is. 
The  Court  eats  all  the  country.  We  who  work,  the 
employes  of  the  State,  the  doctors,  the  soldiers,  never 
receive  any  pay  now.  As  long  as  they  think  they 
can  obtain  our  labour  for  nothing,  not  a  'para  will 
they  let  slip  through  their  fingers.  Look  at  my  case. 
I  have  been  a  doctor  in  the  Turkish  army  for  forty 
years.  I  have  been  through  the  Crimean  war,  over 
all  Asia,  in  the  service  of  Turkey.  I  am  entitled  to 
a  good  pension.  I  have  been  day  after  day  to  the 
offices  at  Constantinople,  and  put  my  case  before 
the  authorities.  They  put  me  off  with  all  sorts  of 
fair  promises,  but  I  knew  what  these  meant,  so  went 
to  them  day  after  day,  and  worried  them  so  much 
that  they  decided  to  get  rid  of  me  in  some  way. 
'There  is  a  permanent  hospital  in  Scutari  in  Alba- 
nia,' they  told  me.  'In  consideration  of  your  long 
service  we  appoint  you  as  head  doctor  of  it.  Start 
at  once  to  your  post.'  Now  that  I  have  travelled 
all  this  way,  at  my  own  expense,  mind  you,  what  do 
I  find?  The  permanent  hospital  no  longer  exists  — 
it  is  a  myth,  and  they  knew  it  in  Constantinople  all 
the  time,  and  no  doubt  chuckled  merrily,  when  I 
had  turned  my  back,  at  the  clever  way  they  had  rid 
themselves  of  the  importunate  old  nuisance."  Then 
67 


TURKEY 

he  went  on  to  speak  of  the  sufferings  of  the  troops, 
and  assured  me  that,  faithful  and  obedient  as  they 
were  by  nature  and  tradition,  they  would  not  put 
up  with  the  vile  treatment  much  longer,  and  that  a 
military  mutiny  was  brewing  which  would  destroy 
the  Despotism  within  a  few  months.  In  this  opin- 
ion he  was  wrong,  for  thirty  years  had  to  roll  by 
before  the  event  which  he  predicted  actually  came 
to  pass.  He  also  spoke  to  me  of  men  of  the  Young 
Turk  party  whom  he  met  in  Constantinople  during 
the  brief  period  of  free  institutions.  He  much 
admired  their  tolerance,  and  asked  me  whether  I 
thought  that  the  Young  Turk  refugees  in  England, 
by  explaining  Turkey's  trouble,  would  be  able  to 
persuade  the  British  Government  to  champion  the 
cause  of  Turkish  liberty. 

I  discovered,  too,  that  the  fame  of  Midhat  Pasha 
as  an  honest,  just,  and  patriotic  statesman  had 
spread  throughout  that  wild  country,  and  it  is  not 
to  be  wondered  at  that  the  Sultan,  fearing  him, 
brought  about  his  destruction,  and  so  made  him 
the  first  martyr  of  the  Young  Turkey  cause.  The 
Mussulman  Albanians  themselves  greatly  revered 
Midhat,  and  regarded  him  as  their  possible  saviour. 
They  had  at  that  time  formed  themselves  into  the 
organisation  known  as  the  Albanian  League,  whose 
object  it  was  in  the  first  place  to  resist  by  force  of 
arms  the  handing  over  to  Montenegro  of  the  Alba- 
nian town  and  district  of  Gussinje,  which,  by  the 
terms  of  the  treaty  of  Berlin,  Turkey  had  ceded  to 
the  mountain  principality;  and  in  the  second  place 
68 


RISE  OF  THE  YOUNG  TURKS 

to  throw  off  the  yoke  of  the  Sultan.  The  leagues- 
men  were  then  the  masters  of  Albania.  They  de- 
cided on,  and  carried  out,  the  murder  in  Jakova  of 
Mehemet  AH,  the  general  who  had  been  sent  by  the 
Porte  on  the  dangerous  mission  of  negotiating  this 
transfer  of  Turkish  territories  to  her  enemies,  and 
about  eight  thousand  of  them,  Albanians,  Mussul- 
man refugees  from  Bosnia,  and  deserters  from  the 
Turkish  army,  were  holding  Gussinje  under  the  lead- 
ership of  Ali  Bey.  Gussinje,  by  the  way,  still  be- 
longs to  Turkey;  for  the  Great  Powers  who  had 
given  it  to  Montenegro  were  unable  to  enforce  with 
the  cannon  of  their  warships  the  surrender  of  a  place 
lying  amid  the  mountains  of  the  interior;  so  Mon- 
tenegro ultimately  had  to  content  itself  with  another 
arrangement. 

I  crossed  the  mountains  that  he  between  Scu- 
tari and  Gussinje,  and  narrowly  escaped  having  my 
head  cut  off  as  a  Russian  spy  on  one  occasion;  but  I 
succeeded  in  seeing  a  good  deal  of  the  Albanian 
leaguesmen.  In  the  course  of  conversation  with  one 
of  their  chiefs  he  spoke  to  me  as  follows:  "The  men 
who  rule  in  Constantinople,  what  do  they  do  for  us.? 
Tax  us,  rob  us  —  that  is  all.  And  what  do  they 
give  us  in  return  for  what  they  steal.?  Can  they  de- 
fend us,  protect  us?  No!  They  have  sold  our  lands 
to  the  Montenegrins  and  the  Austrians.  I  tell  you 
that  we  of  the  League  have  sworn  that  we  will 
have  the  Turk  no  more.  Albania  shall  have  her 
independence  and  the  Powers  shall  recognise  us. 
If  they  do  not,  we  care  not.  Leave  us  alone;  that 
69 


TURKEY 

is  enough  for  us."  Then  turning  suddenly  to  me, 
he  asked,  "What  do  you  Enghsh  think  of  Midhat 
Pasha?'*  I  told  him  of  the  esteem  in  which  Midhat 
was  held  by  my  countrymen;  he  seemed  pleased  on 
hearing  this,  and  said,  "The  Turks  will  not  have  him, 
but  we  will.  What  we  wish  is  to  create  an  indepen- 
dent Albanian  principality,  with  this  good  man  Mid- 
hat Pasha  as  our  prince."  I  have  described  these 
experiences  of  mine  in  Albania  to  show  how  things 
were  shaping  in  the  outer  provinces  of  Turkey  thirty 
years  ago,  and  how,  though  one  heard  nothing  of 
the  Young  Turks  in  Europe,  the  seed  they  had 
sown  had  not  fallen  on  barren  ground;  so  that  at 
last,  when  the  time  was  ripe,  the  people  of  Turkey, 
remembering  what  their  fathers  had  told  them  of  the 
good  Midhat,  w^ere  ready  to  range  themselves  by  the 
side  of  his  disciples. 

But  from  the  year  1878,  when  the  Constitution 
was  suspended,  until  1891  there  appears  to  have 
been  no  Young  Turk  organisation,  though  the  num- 
ber of  Turks  who  longed  for  deliverance  from  a 
detested  regime  was  increasing  by  leaps  and  bounds. 
For  centuries  Geneva  has  been  the  safe  asylum  for 
men  from  other  lands  who  have  revolted  against  the 
tyranny  of  Church  or  Government,  and  there,  in 
these  days,  is  to  be  found  an  interesting  little  soci- 
ety of  Russian  anarchists,  and  all  manner  of  malcon- 
tents and  visionaries,  who  hatch  their  various  plots, 
and  when  the  demand  arises  manufacture  the  fa- 
vourite weapon  of  anarchy,  the  bomb.  It  was  in  this 
fair  city,  in  the  year  1891,  that  a  group  of  Turkish 
70 


RISE  OF  THE  YOUNG  TURKS 

refugees  and  exiles  formed  themselves  into  the  asso- 
ciation that  afterwards  developed  into  the  "Ottoman 
Committee  of  Union  and  Progress." 

The  time  had  indeed  arrived  for  patriotic  Turks 
to  bestir  themselves  and  come  to  the  rescue  of  their 
country;  for  it  was  about  this  date  that  the  most 
critical  period  of  her  history  opened,  and  that  various 
happenings  in  her  European  and  Asiatic  provinces 
threatened  the  disruption  of  the  Empire.  In  1890 
the  persecuted  Armenians  commenced  the  agitation 
which  later  on  the  Sultan  put  down  with  wholesale 
massacres.  In  the  early  nineties,  too,  the  Bulga- 
rians in  Macedonia  initiated  the  conspiracy  which, 
after  various  small  risings,  culminated  in  the  rebel- 
lion of  1903;  and  here,  as  in  Armenia,  the  Turkish 
irregulars  suppressed  insurrection  with  slaughter  and 
rapine.  Indignation  was  aroused  in  Europe,  espe- 
cially in  England,  and  in  1903  the  British  Government 
urged  the  other  Powers  to  join  her  in  compelling  the 
Porte  to  accept  a  scheme  of  reform  under  European 
supervision  that  should  secure  fair  government  and 
the  security  of  Turkey's  Christian  subjects.  But  the 
jealousy  of  the  Powers  stood  in  the  way  of  any  genu- 
ine co-operation,  while  the  policy  of  Turkey's  two 
most  powerful  neighbours  was  to  destroy  the  Otto- 
man Empire  and  not  to  reform  it;  so  the  British 
scheme  was  rejected;  the  measures  that  were  taken  by 
the  Powers  proved  wholly  inadequate ;  the  anarchy  in 
Macedonia  ever  grew  worse;  and  it  became  evident 
that  sooner  or  later  foreign  intervention  of  an  effec- 
tive and  forcible  character  would  be  necessitated. 
71 


TURKEY 

Now  the  one  essential  part  of  the  Young  Turk 
programme  is  the  preservation  of  the  integrity  of  the 
Ottoman  Empire.  Opportunists  in  the  rest  of  their 
policy,  the  Young  Turks  are  determined  that  no 
more  Ottoman  territory  shall  be  placed  under  foreign 
domination.  They  feel  that  foreign  interference  in 
Turkey's  internal  affairs  means  loss  of  national  inde- 
pendence and  the  ultimate  expulsion  of  the  Turks 
from  the  European  side  of  the  Bosphorus.  They 
entertain  the  strongest  objection  to  the  attempted 
settlement  of  the  racial  disputes  in  Macedonia  by 
foreign  Powers,  and  the  chief  article  of  their  faith  is 
that,  for  Turkey  to  hold  her  own  in  the  world,  her 
reforms  must  come  from  within  and  not  from  without. 
Therefore  at  this  juncture,  knowing  that  they  had 
the  educated  classes  in  Turkey  in  sympathy  with 
them,  and  that  oppression  had  made  the  masses  dis- 
contented, these  Turkish  patriots  in  Geneva  decided 
to  create  an  organisation  whose  object  it  would  be 
to  bring  pressure  to  bear  upon  the  Turkish  Govern- 
ment, and  move  the  Sultan  to  sanction  the  much- 
needed  reforms.  At  this  early  stage  they  did  not 
feel  sufficiently  strong  to  plan  the  deposition  of  the 
monarch  should  he  prove  obdurate,  but  they  resolved 
so  to  arrange  matters  in  Constantinople  as  to  make 
it  impossible,  in  the  case  of  the  death  of  that  clever 
and  masterly  monarch,  for  his  successor  to  rule  on 
the  same  despotic  lines. 

The  head-quarters  of  the  organisation  was  moved 
from  Geneva  to  Paris,  and  it  had  its  branches  in 
London  and  other  capitals.     Little  heed  was  paid  to 
72 


RISE  OF  THE  YOUNG  TURKS 

the  Young  Turks  by  the  peoples  in  whose  midst 
they  lived,  and  many  regarded  them  as  harmless 
dreamers.  But  the  Sultan  himself  knew  better;  his 
Embassy  in  Paris  was  instructed  to  watch  the 
organisation  closely,  and  spies  were  sent  from  Con- 
stantinople whose  business  it  was  to  report  directly 
to  the  Palace  all  they  could  discover  concerning  the 
members.  In  Turkey  itself  active  methods  of  sup- 
pression were  taken,  and  the  system  of  espionage 
became  ever  more  unbearable,  with  the  result  that 
the  enemies  of  the  regime  increased  in  number,  and 
Turkey's  best  men  fled  the  country  to  swell  the 
band  of  conspirators  in  Paris. 

Now  that  men  can  talk  quite  freely  in  Turkey, 
returning  exiles  tell  strange  and  romantic  tales  of 
their  adventures  in  those  dark  days.  For  a  Turkish 
subject  to  leave  Turkey  without  the  permission  of 
the  inquisitorial  Government  was  then  a  treason- 
able offence  involving  outlawry  and  the  confiscation 
of  property.  As  every  outgoing  steamer  was  closely 
watched  by  the  police,  it  was  no  easy  matter  to 
escape  from  Constantinople  by  sea,  and  to  do  so  by 
land  was  still  more  difficult.  On  several  occasions 
distinguished  Turks  were  assisted  in  their  flight  by 
their  English  friends.  For  example,  with  the  con- 
nivance of  one  of  our  Consuls,  a  fugitive  Pasha  was 
concealed  in  the  Consulate,  was  disguised  in  a  suit 
of  slops  such  as  sailormen  wear,  and  when  the 
opportunity  arrived  quietly  walked  away  from  the 
carefully  watched  Consulate  in  the  company  of  an 
English  merchant  captain,  satisfied  the  questioning 
73 


TURKEY 

police  spies  on  the  quay,  and  boarded  the  British 
vessel  that  was  to  carry  him  to  safety;  for  he  had 
been  entered  on  the  ship's  books  as  cook,  and 
was  provided  with  the  necessary  consular  document 
that  testified  to  his  having  signed  articles  in  that 
capacity.  Oftentimes,  too,  some  British  steamer 
passing  down  the  Bosphorus  would  stop  her  engines 
and,  under  cover  of  the  darkness,  send  off  the  friendly 
boat  that,  by  pre-arrangement,  would  take  a  party 
of  fugitive  Turks  from  a  lonely  beach,  and  so  save 
them  from  the  oubliette  or  the  strangler's  cord. 

The  Palace  employed  terrorism  in  Turkey  and 
corruption  in  Paris  in  its  attempt  to  destroy  the 
Young  Turk  association.  By  offers  of  rewards  and 
high  positions,  some  of  the  members  were  persuaded 
to  desert  the  cause  and  to  return  to  Turkey.  Some 
were  found  base  enough  to  serve  as  spies.  Thus, 
one,  whose  name  it  is  perhaps  better  not  to  mention, 
contrived  to  work  himself  into  a  prominent  posi- 
tion on  the  Paris  Committee,  learnt  its  secrets,  and 
returned  to  Constantinople  to  betray  them  to  the 
Sultan.  But  the  organisation  ever  grew  stronger 
under  persecution,  and  patriotic  Turks  supplied  the 
funds  which  enabled  it  to  carry  on  its  propaganda. 
The  Paris  Committee  published  a  paper  and  numer- 
ous tracts,  which  exposed  the  iniquities  of  the 
Hamidian  regime  and  called  for  the  deposition  of 
the  Sultan,  and  these  were  smuggled  into  Turkey 
and  were  widely  distributed  and  read,  despite  the 
vigilance  of  the  ever-increasing  army  of  spies.  The 
agents  of  the  Committee  in  Constantinople  used  to 
74 


RISE    OF    THE    YOUNG    TURKS 

placard  the  city  under  cover  of  the  night  with  revo- 
kitionary  appeals,  and  seditious  placards  threaten- 
ing the  life  of  the  Sultan  were  sometimes  placed 
upon  the  walls  of  the  Palace  itself.  Abdul  Hamid, 
hving  in  perpetual  fear,  redoubled  his  precautions. 

In  1901  the  Sultan,  having  been  informed  by  his 
ambassador  in  Paris  that  the  Paris  Committee  was 
preparing  a  great  Young  Turkey  demonstration  in 
Constantinople  itself,  was  so  anxious  to  intercept  the 
correspondence  that  was  passing  beween  Paris  and 
the  members  of  the  Young  Turkey  party  in  his  cap- 
ital that  he  violated  his  international  agreements 
by  seizing  and  breaking  open  the  European  mail- 
bags  that  were  addressed  to  the  various  foreign  post- 
offices  in  Constantinople,  and  thereby  provoked  the 
Powers  to  threaten  a  joint  naval  demonstration, 
which  was  only  warded  off  by  a  humble  apology 
and  further  solemn  promises  on  Abdul  Hamid's 
part. 

In  Paris  the  "Ottoman  Committee  of  Union  and 
Progress,"  to  give  the  association  the  now  world- 
famous  name  which  it  assumed  a  few  years  ago,  was 
ably  directed  by  Ahmed  Riza  Bey,  who,  having 
worked  with  devotion  for  the  cause  through  eighteen 
years  of  exile,  returned  to  Turkey  after  the  procla- 
mation of  the  Constitution  last  year,  and  is  now 
the  President,  or  Speaker,  of  the  Turkish  Chamber 
of  Deputies.  The  Committee  was  also  strengthened 
during  the  last  few  years  of  the  Hamidian  regime  by 
the  admission  to  it  of  several  distinguished  Turks  of 
high  rank,  who  fled  from  Constantinople  to  Paris  so 
75 


TURKEY 

as  to  be  able  to  assist  the  national  movement  from 
that  safe  vantage-ground.  Among  these  fugitives 
was  the  Sultan's  relative,  Prince  Sabah-ed-din,  who 
threw  himself  heart  and  soul  into  the  revolutionary 
movement,  and  advocated  a  policy  more  advanced 
and  radical  than  that  favoured  by  the  large  major- 
ity of  the  Young  Turks,  whose  Liberalism  is  full- 
blooded  Toryism  when  compared  to  what  passes  for 
Liberalism  in  England  in  these  latter  days.  Prince 
Sabah-ed-din  is  an  advanced  home  ruler,  and  he  is 
the  virtual  leader  of  the  "Liberal  Union"  party, 
which  is  working  for  a  degree  of  centralisation  that 
is  regarded  as  dangerous  by  most  Mussulmans,  but 
is  naturally  pleasing  to  the  Greeks. 

But  though  these  Turkish  gentlemen,  wuth  their 
clever  conversation  and  their  charming  manners, 
were  welcomed  in  Paris  salons  and  London  drawing- 
rooms,  few  people  in  Europe  realised  that  the  Young 
Turkey  movement  had  the  remotest  chance  of 
attaining  its  ends;  for  it  was  a  silent  movement, 
and  while  the  Greeks,  Bulgarians,  and  Armenians 
voiced  their  grievances  with  a  persistence  that  gained 
for  them  a  wide  hearing  and  much  sympathy,  the 
patriotic  Turks,  unwilling  to  invoke  the  help  of 
foreigners,  took  no  steps  to  make  their  aspirations 
known  in  Europe.  Ahmed  Riza  did,  indeed,  come 
over  to  London  in  1904,  and,  for  the  first  time  in 
his  life,  addressed  a  meeting  of  Englishmen,  but  it 
was  not  to  crave  sympathy  for  .the  Mussulman  Turks 
whom  he  represented,  but  to  express  the  sentiments 
of  his  party  regarding  foreign  intervention  in  Tur- 
76 


RISE  OF  THE  YOUNG  TURKS 

key,  whether  it  were  that  of  a  Government  or  of  the 
English  humanitarian  committees.  In  the  course  of 
his  speech  Ahmed  Bey,  while  admitting  the  justice 
of  a  revolt  against  despotism,  condemned  the  Euro- 
pean friends  of  Armenia  and  Macedonia  for  wrong- 
fully and  artificially  inciting  a  rising,  and  so  playing 
the  part  of  the  Pan-Slavist  agents,  and  he  practi- 
cally put  it  that  by  fomenting  insurrection  among 
the  Christian  populations  in  Turkey  they  were  more 
or  less  responsible  for  the  massacres  which  followed. 
The  meeting,  to  quote  from  the  official  report,  "be- 
came extremely  agitated,  and  many  interruptions 
were  addressed  to  the  speaker."  The  speakers  who 
followed  had  some  unkind  things  to  say  concern- 
ing Ahmed  Riza  and  the  Young  Turks.  Here  is  a 
quotation  from  the  speech  of  an  influential  humani- 
tarian who  was  present:  "I  am  not  sorry  that  the 
gentleman  has  spoken,  because  it  shows  us  how  im- 
possible it  is  to  expect  any  reforms  in  Turkey  from 
the  Young  Turkish  party.  They  are  only  thinking 
of  themselves.  The  liberties  of  the  Christians  would 
be  just  as  unsafe  under  a  Sultan  with  the  sentiments 
of  the  gentleman  who  has  just  sat  down,  as  under 
the  present  Sultan." 

And  yet,  even  at  that  time,  Ahmed  Riza  and  his 
Mussulman  associates  were  planning  a  scheme  which 
was  intended  to  bring  liberty,  justice,  and  security 
to  the  oppressed  Christian  subjects  of  the  Porte,  and 
was,  moreover,  destined  to  prove  successful  where 
all  the  diplomacy  of  the  Powers  and  the  too  often 
misdirected  efforts  of  the  humanitarians  in  Europe 
77 


TURKEY 

had  signally  failed.  For  the  Young  Turks,  like  their 
great  forerunner,  Midhat  Pasha,  realised  that  Tur- 
key could  only  be  saved  from  disintegration  by 
placing  all  her  races  and  creeds  on  an  equahty,  by 
giving  the  same  rights  to  all.  They  therefore  set 
themselves  to  bring  about  a  co-operation  of  the 
various  elements  of  the  Turkish  population,  and  to 
make  common  cause  with  the  Armenian,  Bulgarian, 
and  other  revolutionary  non-Mussulman  committees 
in  Paris. 

It  appeared,  to  those  who  heard  of  it,  as  being 
the  most  chimerical  of  schemes;  for  the  Young 
Turks  and  their  proposed  alhes  had  but  one  aspira- 
tion in  common  —  the  overthrow  of  the  Despotism. 
Their  ideals  seemed  indeed  to  be  irreconcilable.  The 
Young  Turks  above  all  things  desired  the  mainte- 
nance of  the  integrity  of  the  Ottoman  Empire  and  a 
union  of  her  peoples  that  would  make  the  Empire 
strong.  On  the  other  hand,  the  non-Mussulman 
revolutionaries  cared  nothing  for  the  integrity  of  the 
Empire.  For  the  most  part  they  desired  not  to 
reform  Turkey,  but  to  break  her  up.  Neither  did 
they  seek  union  among  themselves;  for  the  different 
Christian  races  hated  each  other,  and  cherished 
mutually  incompatible  ambitions.  Thus,  Bulgari- 
ans, Greeks,  and  Serbs  in  Macedonia  dreamt  of  the 
formation  of  autonomous  States,  or  of  annexations 
to  Bulgaria,  Greece,  and  Servia,  respectively.  There 
was  to  be  found,  too,  in  some  of  the  non-Mussulman 
committees,'  a  considerable  leavening  of  anarchical 
and  socialistic  ideas  with  which  the  conservative 
78 


RISE    OF    THE    YOUNG    TURKS 

Turkish  reformers  could  have  no  sympathy.  Out 
of  elements  so  incongruous,  and  in  many  respects 
antagonistic,  it  would  seem  impossible  to  effect  any 
sort  of  co-operation. 

But  the  Young  Turks  were  terribly  in  earnest, 
and  were  patient  and  persuasive;  they  compelled  the 
leaders  of  the  non-Mussulman  committees  to  listen 
to  their  arguments,  and  they  sent  delegates  to  their 
meetings;  but  it  was,  of  course,  not  for  a  long  time 
that  they  could  come  to  an  understanding  with  men 
who  found  it  difficult  to  believe  that  any  form  of 
Turkish  rule  could  deal  fairly  with  Christians  and 
Jews.  At  last,  wonderful  to  say,  the  Young  Turks 
in  Paris,  being  honest  patriots,  succeeded  in  convin- 
cing the  other  groups  of  their  sincerity  when  they 
put  forward  the  full  equality  in  the  eyes  of  the  law 
of  all  races  and  creeds  in  Turkey  as  an  essential  por- 
tion of  their  programme. 

The  Armenian  committees  were  the  first  to  fall  in 
line  with  the  Young  Turkey  movement,  and  the 
union  between  them  that  was  arranged  in  Paris,  in 
1903,  has  been  faithfully  observed  by  both  parties. 
It  will  be  remembered  how  the  two  races  fraternised 
after  the  declaration  of  the  Constitution,  how  the 
world  was  amazed  bj^  the  spectacle  of  Armenian 
and  Moslem  clergymen  walking  arm  in  arm  in  pro- 
cessions, and  how  loyally  the  Turks  and  Armenians 
worked  together  during  the  Parliamentary  elections. 
It  was,  indeed,  a  natural  alliance;  there  has  never 
been  real  enmity  between  the  two  races  until  the 
present  Sultan's  reign.  The  Armenian  massacres 
79 


TURKEY 

were  not  the  work  of  Turks  but  of  savage  Kurds, 
instigated  by  the  Palace  Camarilla.  "Few  incidents 
in  history  are  more  touching,"  writes  a  Turkish  sub- 
ject in  the  Nineteenth  Century,  "than  the  visit  paid 
by  a  large  assembly  of  Turks  (in  August  last)  to 
the  Armenian  cemetery  in  Constantinople,  in  order 
to  deposit  floral  tributes  on  the  graves  of  the  victims 
of  the  massacre  of  1894,  and  to  have  prayers  recited, 
by  a  priest  of  their  own  persuasion,  over  the  butch- 
ered dead." 

Moreover,  there  were  few  political  difficulties  in 
the  way  of  an  understanding  between  the  Young 
Turks  and  the  Armenian  revolutionaries.  The 
problem  was  not  like  that  of  the  Greeks  and  Slavs 
in  Macedonia,  who  had  on  the  frontier  independent 
nations  of  people  of  their  own  kin  on  whom  to  lean 
and  to  whom  to  look  for  protection  and  perchance 
annexation.  For  Armenia  is  now  but  a  geographi- 
cal expression,  and  ancient  Armenia  has  been  par- 
titioned between  Turkey,  Russia,  and  Persia.  The 
Armenians  in  Turkish  Armenia  are  vastly  outnum- 
bered by  the  Moslem  population;  and  the  creation 
of  an  independent  Armenian  principality,  desired 
by  a  section  of  the  revolutionists,  was  obviously  an 
impracticable  scheme.  The  more  sensible  Arme- 
nians realised  that  the  only  alternative  for  the  rule 
of  Turkey  was  that  of  Russia,  and  the  experience  of 
their  brethren  across  the  border  had  proved  to  them 
that,  of  the  two,  the  rule  of  Turkey  was  to  be  pre- 
ferred; for  under  it  they  enjoyed  a  measure  of  racial 
autonomy  and  various  privileges  —  much  restricted, 
80      . 


RISE    OF    THE    YOUNG    TURKS 

it  is  true,  under  Abdul  Hamid's  despotism  —  which 
the  Russian  Government,  ever  bent  on  the  Russian- 
isation  of  the  nationalities  subject  to  it,  would  cer- 
tainly have  denied  to  them.  y 

It  was,  therefore,  the  aim  of  the  moderates  among 
the  Armenian  malcontents,  while  remaining  under 
Ottoman  rule,  to  secure  the  civil  liberties  and  insti- 
tutions calculated  to  guarantee  their  personal  safety, 
the  security  of  their  property,  and  the  honour  of  their 
wives  and  daughters.  Now  the  Young  Turk  pro- 
gramme promised  them  these  things  and  more;  so, 
realising  that  this  great  Mussulman  movement  was 
likely  to  meet  with  success,  they  decided  to  throw  in 
their  lot  with  Ahmed  Riza  and  his  brother  revolu- 
tionaries. 

But  this  union  could  not  be  accomplished  until  the 
Armenians  had  consented  to  abandon  the  methods 
of  their  propaganda.  They  had  for  years  been 
appealing  to  the  European  Powers,  through  their 
Committees,  to  compel  the  Sultan  to  grant  good 
government  to  his  Christian  subjects  in  Armenia 
in  accordance  with  the  solemn  pledges  which  he 
had  given  to  the  signatories  of  the  Treaty  of  Berlin. 
But  the  Young  Turks  insisted  that  there  must  be  no 
appealing  to  foreign  Powers  for  assistance,  that  the 
Armenians  henceforth  would  have  to  rely  upon  the 
support  of  their  Mussulman  fellow-subjects  alone, 
that  they  must  now  cease  from  such  agitation  as 
might  invite  further  massacres,  and  await  the  out- 
break of  the  revolution  that  was  to  deliver  all  the 
races  that  were  oppressed  by  the  Despotism. 
81 


TURKEY 

It  may  have  been  noticed  that  from  the  date  of 
this  understanding,  in  1903,  one  heard  very  Httle 
about  trouble  in  Armenia;  the  violence  of  the  Arme- 
nian propaganda  was  restrained  by  the  leaders  so 
that  the  Young  Turk  movement  might  not  be  em- 
barrassed, and  the  attention  of  Europe  was  now 
turned  to  the  state  of  anarchy  in  Macedonia.  The 
Young  Turks  always  worked  in  secret,  but  when 
policy  demanded  it  they  sometimes  came  out  into 
the  open.  Thus  it  was  that  Ahmed  Riza  went  to 
London  in  1904,  shortly  after  the  union  between  his 
party  and  the  Armenian  Committees,  and,  in  the 
speech  from  which  I  have  quoted,  protested  at  a 
public  meeting  against  the  interference  of  English 
humanitarians  in  the  affairs  of  Armenia.  He  also 
seems  to  have  influenced  those  who  governed  the 
policy  of  the  x\nglo-Armenian  Association  and  to 
have  won  their  confidence  in  his  judgment,  for  it 
was  at  about  this  time  that  the  active  propaganda 
of  this  organisation  suddenly  came  to  a  stop. 

But  Ahmed  Riza  and  his  associates,  though  they 
were  working  diligently  to  prepare  the  ground  for  the 
coming  revolution  by  sending  emissaries  to  inocu- 
late the  young  army  officers  in  Turkey  with  their 
views,  and  the  Moslem  clergy  with  interpretations 
of  the  Koran  that  breathed  the  spirit  of  reform  and 
tolerance,  kept  their  doings  secret  even  from  their 
friends.  The  revolution,  so  carefully  planned,  came 
as  a  complete  surprise  even  to  those  Englishmen 
who  had  come  in  touch  with  the  Turkish  reformers 
in  Paris  and  sympathised  with  the  aspirations  of 
82 


RISE  OF  THE  YOUNG  TURKS 

those  intensely  patriotic  men  who  shunned  poHtics, 
declined  interviews  with  the  press,  and  lived  most 
frugal  lives,  while  they  devoted  themselves  with 
single-minded  zeal  to  the  cause.  I  may  mention 
that  since  1904  the  officials  of  the  Eastern  Ques- 
tions Association  (which,  I  believe,  has  always  held 
the  view  that  a  strong  and  independent  Turkey  is  an 
essential  factor  in  the  polity  of  nations)  have  been 
on  friendly  terms  with  Ahmed  Riza  Bey,  visited  him 
in  Paris,  become  strong  supporters  of  the  Young 
Turk  party,  and  have  vigorously  denounced  the 
crooked  policy  of  Russia  and  Austria  in  Macedonia. 

The  Young  Turks  thus  came  to  an  understanding 
with  the  Armenians,  and  later  on  it  was  arranged 
between  them  that  when  the  time  was  ripe,  and  the 
Committtee  gave  the  word  for  the  Mussulman  revolt 
in  Turkey,  the  Armenians  should  also  rise;  for  it  was 
realised  that  the  Sultan  would  yield  to  nothing  but 
force,  and  that  only  by  means  of  an  armed  rebellion, 
and  that  possibly  a  very  bloody  one,  could  the  liber- 
ators of  Turkey  effect  their  end. 

And  now  the  Young  Turks  set  themselves  to  win 
over  to  their  cause  the  other  non-Mussulman  revolu- 
tionary Committees.  With  the  Jews,  as  with  the 
Armenians,  they  had  relatively  little  difficulty,  for 
the  Jews  were  a  people  without  a  land,  and  therefore 
could  entertain  no  schemes  of  national  independence; 
their  hope  and  interests  lay  in  the  good  government 
of  the  Ottoman  Empire.  But  with  the  Bulgarians, 
Greeks,  and  Serbs  of  Macedonia,  whose  very  last 
idea  it  was  to  become  patriotic  Ottomans,  the  Young 
83 


TURKEY 

Turks  found  the  work  of  persuasion  attended  with 
almost  insuperable  difficulties. 

To  these  revolutionaries  other  forms  of  argument 
had  to  be  applied.  It  was  pointed  out  to  them  that, 
unassisted  from  outside,  they  could  not  hope  to 
conquer  their  independence  with  the  sword  from  the 
armies  of  the  Sultan;  that  the  mutually  jealous 
Great  Powers,  if  they  did  intervene  in  Macedonia, 
were  not  in  the  least  likely  to  favour  the  political 
aspirations  of  the  Christian  populations;  that  to 
appeal  to  foreign  intervention  was  a  very  dangerous 
thing;  and  that  the  annexation  of  the  greater  part  of 
Macedonia  to  Austria-Hungary  —  in  detestation  of 
which  Power  all  these  Balkan  races  are  united  — 
might  be  the  result  of  the  state  of  anarchy  in  that 
region  for  which  the  revolutionary  bands  were 
responsible;  in  short,  that  it  would  be  to  the  advan- 
tage of  the  Macedonian  Christians  to  abandon  their 
ideas  of  separation  from  the  Ottoman  Empire  and  to 
join  cause  with  the  Young  Turks,  whose  aim  it  was 
to  hold  the  Empire  together  and  to  give  equal  rights 
to  all  its  peoples. 

Wonderful  to  say,  the  Macedonian  Committees  in 
Paris  at  last  allowed  themselves  to  be  persuaded, 
and  threw  in  their  lot  with  the  Young  Turks,  half- 
heartedly, perhaps,  at  first,  and  with  mental  reserva- 
tions. They  realised  that  thej^  could  hope  for  little 
help  from  Europe,  and  were  willing  to  work  with 
the  Young  Turks  in  upsetting  the  Hamidian  regime. 
After  a  successful  revolution  something  might  turn 
up  that  would  enable  them  to  gain  the  national  inde- 
84 


RISE  OF  THE  YOUNG  TURKS 

pendence  that  they  still  had  at  heart;  and  even  if 
that  hope  was  destroyed,  they  would  be  able,  having 
supported  the  Young  Turks,  to  claim  the  equal 
rights  which  these  had  promised  to  them.  But  the 
conflict  of  interests  that  severed  the  various  groups, 
and  the  anarchical  principles  that  some  of  the  revo- 
lutionary leaders  professed,  made  the  reconciliation 
of  all  these  discordant  elements  a  matter  of  great 
difficulty.  The  Congress  held  in  Paris,  in  1902,  had 
for  its  chief  result  the  .accentuation  of  schism;  it  was 
not  till  1907  that  the  various  Committees  were  able 
at  last  to  arrange  a  programme  that  was  acceptable 
to  all;  and  by  that  time  the  Young  Turks  had 
established  their  secret  society  in  Macedonia  and 
had  gained  the  allegiance  of  a  considerable  portion 
of  that  formidable  Turkish  army  without  whose 
cooperation,  as  the  Christians  in  Macedonia  knew 
well,  no  revolution  had  a  chance  of  success. 

So  in  December,  1907,  a  Congress  of  the  Turkish 
revolutionaries  met  in  Paris,  at  which  were  repre- 
sented the  Ottoman  Committee  of  Union  and 
Progress,  the  Armenian,  Bulgarian,  Jewish,  Arab, 
Albanian,  and  other  Committees;  and  the  delegates 
all  agreed  to  accept  the  following  principles:  The 
deposition  of  the  Sultan  Abdul  Hamid.  The  main- 
tenance of  the  integrity  of  the  Ottoman  Empire. 
Absolute  equality  in  the  eyes  of  the  law  of  the 
various  races  and  religions.  The  establishment  of 
Parliamentary  institutions  on  the  lines  of  Midhat 
Pasha's  Constitution. 

The  "Ottoman  Committee  of  Union  and  Prog- 
85 


TURKEY 

ress,"  as  representing  the  dominant  race  and  the 
fighting  forces  of  the  revolution,  naturally  now  took 
the  lead,  and  its  members,  of  whom  but  a  few 
were  non-Mussulmans,  became  the  organisers  of  the 
revolt  and  mandatories  of  the  other  Committees. 
It  may  be  pointed  out  here  that  the  resolutions  of 
the  Congress  had  no  effect  in  pacifying  Macedo- 
nia, where,  indeed,  the  condition  of  affairs  was  ever 
becoming  worse;  for  Greece  and  Bulgaria,  still  look- 
ing forward  to  the  disruption  of  Turkey,  were  pour- 
ing into  Macedonia  their  armed  bands  to  "peg  out 
claims"  in  the  Greek  and  Bulgarian  interest;  and 
throughout  all  that  region  violence,  murder,  and 
rapine  prevailed.  Of  no  more  effect  were  the  efforts 
of  the  Great  Powers,  which,  in  1907,  issued  a  cate- 
gorical declaration  that  no  Macedonian  race  would 
be  permitted  to  draw  any  territorial  advantage  from 
the  action  of  its  bands. 


86 


CHAPTER    VII 

DISCONTENT    IN    THE   ARMY 

IN  1906  the  Ottoman  Committee  of  Union  and 
Progress,  considering  that  the  time  had  come 
to  transfer  their  organisation  to  the  soil  of 
Turkey  itself,  and  there  make  the  final  preparations 
for  their  attack  on  the  Despotism,  selected  Macedo- 
nia as  the  scene  of  their  initial  operations. 

There  were  good  reasons  for  choosing  this  portion 
of  Turkey  as  their  strategic  base.  In  the  first  place, 
it  was  here  that  the  forces  were  chiefly  at  work  which 
were  threatening  the  speedy  dissolution  of  the  Otto- 
man Empire,  and  the  Young  Turks  realised  that 
unless  they  quickly  came  to  the  rescue  it  would  be 
too  late,  and  Macedonia  would  be  lost.  The  terri- 
ble condition  of  the  country,  overrun  as  it  was  by 
murderous  bands  of  political  brigands  supported  by 
Turkey's  enemies,  had  already  drawn  an  interfer- 
ence in  the  internal  affairs  of  Macedonia  on  the  part 
of  the  Great  Powers  that  was  deeply  humiliating  to 
every  patriotic  Turk.  The  Powers  had  compelled 
the  Sultan,  by  threat  of  force,  to  consent  to  the  super- 
vision of  the  civil  administration  of  Macedonia  by 
an  international  financial  commission,  and  to  the 
formation  of  an  international  gendarmerie  trained 
87 


TURKEY 

and  commanded  by  foreign  officers  —  of  whom,  by 
the  way,  the  English  officers  have  undoubtedly 
been  the  most  successful,  as  they  are  more  in  sym- 
pathy than  the  others  with  the  nature  of  the  Turkish 
soldier.  But  the  patriotic  Turks,  though  they  often 
entertained  personal  affection  for  the  European  offi- 
cers who  were  thus  thrust  upon  them,  loathed  this 
foreign  interference,  and  nourished  a  bitter  resent- 
ment against  the  Hamidian  regime,  whose  inept  rule 
had  brought  this  indignity  upon  Turkey  and  made 
the  world  regard  the  Ottomans  as  a  fallen  people  no 
longer  capable  of  managing  their  own  affairs. 

There  was  one  feature  of  this  foreign  intervention 
which  was  especially  disagreeable  and  alarming  to 
the  Young  Turks.  The  reforms  proposed  by  Eng- 
land, a  disinterested  country,  had  been  rejected  by 
the  Powers,  and  a  mandate  had  been  given  to  Russia 
and  Austria  —  regarded  by  the  Turks  as  their  most 
treacherous  enemies  —  to  introduce  their  own  pro- 
gramme of  reform  (the  Murzteg  programme)  into 
Macedonia.  The  Turks  maintained,  as,  too,  did 
independent  observers,  that  these  two  Powders  of  a 
purpose  made  this  programme  a  wholly  ineffective 
one,  and  that  their  representatives  were  so  working 
as  to  foment  disorder  and  strife  among  the  Chris- 
tian populations  in  order  to  forward  the  schemes  for 
the  dismemberment  of  European  Turkey. 

The  signs  of  this  foreign  intervention  everywhere 

around  them  served  as  object  lessons  to  the  people 

in  Macedonia,  whether  educated  men  or  peasants, 

civilians  or  soldiers,  and  they  reahsed  that,  unless 

88 


DISCONTENT    IN    THE    ARMY 

the  methods  of  Turkish  government  improved,  the 
foreign  hold  on  the  country  would  be  ever  tightened 
until  its  independence  was  destroyed.  Thus  there 
spread  throughout  Macedonia  a  profound  discontent 
with  the  existing  order  of  things,  that  prepared  the 
ground  for  the  great  conspiracy. 

To  wun  over  the  Army  to  their  side  was  of  course 
the  first  object  of  the  Young  Turks,  and  therefore 
Macedonia  was  well  chosen  as  the  field  of  the  early 
operations,  inasmuch  as  the  troops  there  were  in  a 
more  disaffected  condition  than  those  in  any  other 
part  of  the  Empire,  and  were  ripe  for  revolt.  For 
years  these  troops  —  ill  clad,  ill  fed,  and  rarely  paid 
—  had  been  engaged  in  a  desultory  guerilla  war 
against  the  bands  of  the  Christian  insurgents  —  a 
form  of  police  work  that  brought  no  glory  and  was 
uncongenial  to  soldiers,  while,  by  scattering  them  over 
the  country  in  small  sections,  it  did  away  with  the 
cohesion  and  esjprit  de  corps  essential  to  an  army. 
Their  discontent  was  also  aroused  by  seeing  by  the 
side  of  them  their  brothers  of  the  smart  international 
gendarmerie,  men  with  military  pride  and  bearing, 
well  disciplined  and  (for  the  Powers  saw  to  this)  well 
clothed  and  fed,  and  regularly  paid.  It  hurt  the 
self-respect  of  both  officers  and  men  in  the  regular 
army  to  contrast  the  condition  of  these  men  with 
that  of  their  ragged  selves,  for  which,  as  they  well 
knew,  the  corrupt  administration  of  the  Palace  gang 
was  to  blame. 

Of  the  intolerable  military  spy  system  and  the 
other  causes  of  disaffection  among  the  officers  of  the 


TURKEY 

Ottoman  forces  I  have  already  spoken.  The  young 
officers  of  the  Macedonia  army,  men  of  education 
and  open-minded,  who  had  passed  through  the  miH- 
tary  academies  and  had  received  instruction  from 
foreign  teachers,  had  exceptional  opportunities  in 
Macedonia  for  observing  how  an  infamous  rule  was 
hurrying  their  country  to  its  ruin,  and  therefore  their 
sympathies  naturally  inclined  towards  the  Young 
Turkey  movement.  Moreover,  special  grievances 
of  their  own  aggravated  their  detestation  of  the 
Hamidian  regime;  the  spy  system  was  more  search- 
ing and  oppressive  then  elsewhere  in  this  suspected 
portion  of  the  Ottoman  army,  and  it  had  become 
the  habit  of  the  Palace  —  galling  to  those  who  suf- 
fered under  it  —  to  send  from  the  capital  sleek 
Court  favourites,  with  nothing  of  the  soldier  in 
them,  to  assume  commands  over  the  heads  of  fine 
officers  who  had  taken  a  distinguished  part  in 
Turkey's  wars,  and  had  been  fighting  the  insurgent 
bands  for  years  in  the  Macedonian  mountains,  but 
had  never  obtained  the  promotion  that  was  their  due. 

Moreover,  it  favoured  the  plan  of  the  revolution- 
aries that  this  vantage  ground  of  Macedonia  was  at 
a  safe  distance  from  the  capital  —  from  the  Palace 
with  its  myriad  eyes  and  its  regiments  of  well-fed, 
well-equipped,  well-paid  troops  who  could  be  counted 
upon  to  remain  loyal  to  the  despotism. 

So  far  as  the  Mussulman  population  and  the  army 

were  concerned,  Macedonia  was  therefore  ripe  for 

rebellion,  and  the  Christian  peasantry,  weary  of  the 

slaughter  and  devastation  which  the  bands  for  years 

90 


DISCONTENT    IN    THE    ARMY 

had  been  inflicting  on  the  wretched  country,  were 
ready  to  welcome  any  new  order  of  things  that 
promised  to  bring  peace  and  security. 

To  understand  the  operations  of  the  secret  society 
that  organised  the  insurrection  in  Macedonia,  it  is 
necessary  to  bear  in  mind  the  condition  of  the  coun- 
try at  that  time.  The  Christian  peasantry  in  Mace- 
donia had  suffered  terribly  from  the  pitiless  methods 
employed  by  the  Turks  in  suppressing  any  signs  of 
insurrection,  but  during  the  latter  years  of  the 
Hamidian  regime  they  had  to  suffer  even  worse 
things,  in  consequence  of  the  cruel  internecine  war 
which  they  waged  among  themselves.  The  various 
races  that  make  up  the  population  of  Macedonia  had 
for  long  been  carrying  on  their  several  national 
propaganda.  The  three  independent  States  on  Mace- 
donia's borders,  Greece,  Bulgaria,  and  Servia,  were 
working  with  the  Greeks,  Bulgarians,  and  Serbs  under 
Turkish  rule,  with  a  view  to  territorial  expansion  in 
this  region,  so  soon  as  the  dissolution  of  the  Turkish 
Empire,  to  which  they  looked  forward  with  confi- 
dence, should  come  to  pass.  But  in  Macedonia  there 
are  no  extensive  districts  exclusively  inhabited  by 
Greeks,  Bulgarians,  or  Serbs.  The  different  races  are 
intermingled,  and  it  is  not  unusual  to  find  Mussul- 
man Turks  and  Christians  of  each  of  three  races  liv- 
ing side  by  side  in  the  same  village.  Consequently, 
as  each  of  the  three  States  above  mentioned  aspired 
to  the  reversion  of  all  territory  occupied  by  people  of 
its  own  race,  there  was  nearly  everywhere  an  over- 
lapping of  claims;  and  it  became  the  policy  of  each 
91 


TURKEY 

State  to  gain  influence  in  a  coveted  district  and  there 
secure  the  numerical  superiority  of  people  of  its  own 
race,  so  as  to  be  able  to  establish  a  strong  title  to 
possession  when  the  Powers  should  undertake  the 
dismemberment  of  Turkey. 

This  racial  rivalry  was  embittered  by  religious 
fanaticism.  Formerly  the  Greek  Orthodox  Church 
exercised  an  exclusive  influence  over  the  Bulgarian 
as  well  as  Greek  population  of  Macedonia,  and  all 
recognised  the  Patriarch  as  their  spiritual  head. 
The  Bulgarians  resented  the  tyrannical  ecclesiastical 
ascendency  of  the  Greeks,  and  a  schism  arose  which 
was  deliberately  widened  by  the  Sultan  Abd-ul-Aziz, 
who  conceded  to  the  Bulgarians  the  right  to  separate 
from  the  Greek  Church  and  appoint  an  Exarch  of 
their  own.  The  Patriarch  excommunicated  the  first 
Exarch  and  all  who  gave  their  allegiance  to  him,  and 
since  then  there  has  been  bitter  hatred  between  the 
Orthodox  and  the  schismatics.  Of  the  Bulgarians 
in  Macedonia,  some  have  remained  faithful  to  the 
Orthodox  Church,  while  the  majority  acknowledge 
the  spiritual  headship  of  the  Exarch.  Now  in  Turkey 
populations  are  reckoned  according  to  creed  and  not 
race,  and  in  the  census  returns  a  Bulgarian  who  was 
a  member  of  the  Orthodox  Greek  Church  would 
appear  as  a  Greek.  Therefore,  for  political,  as  well 
as  religious,  reasons  the  Greeks  and  Bulgarians  strove 
hard  to  snatch  from  each  other  the  control  of  the 
schools  and  churches  in  any  district  where  there  was 
a  Bulgarian  population,  and  employed  violence  and 
every  form  of  persecution  to  secure  converts. 
92 


DISCONTENT    IN    THE    ARMY 

In  Greece,  Bulgaria,  and  Servia,  armed  bands  were 
equipped  and  sent  into  Macedonia  to  forward  the 
rival  interests  of  these  land-lustful  States.  Bulga- 
rian bands  burnt  Greek  villages  and  Greek  bands 
those  of  the  Bulgarians.  The  seizure  of  each  other's 
churches  and  ecclesiastical  property,  and  the  murder 
of  priests,  became  features  of  the  propaganda.  In 
the  zeal  to  bring  about  the  preponderance  of  this  or 
that  race  the  armed  ruffians  murdered  women  and 
children,  and  all  the  barbarities  which  aroused  the 
indignation  of  Europe  when  Turkish  irregulars  were 
the  guilty,  were  now  committed  against  each  other 
by  the  Christian  "proteges  of  our  humanitarians.  With 
fire  and  sword  the  several  propaganda  were  spread 
through  the  country.  The  Greeks  boycotted  the 
Bulgarians  in  the  towns,  and  by  various  methods 
of  persecution  endeavoured  to  drive  Bulgarians 
from  coveted  districts  on  the  sea-coast.  The  Greek 
bishops  and  clergy  worked  with  fanatical  activity; 
not  only  did  they  forbid  their  co-religionists  to  give 
employment  to  Bulgarians,  but  they  were  largely 
responsible  for  the  atrocities  committed  by  the  Greek 
bands,  and  went  so  far  as  to  draw  up  proscription 
lists  of  Bulgarian  schismatics  who  had  to  be  assas- 
sinated; but  the  Bulgarians  often  had  their  revenge, 
as  when,  about  a  year  ago,  they  dragged  a  Greek 
clergyman  out  of  his  church  and  burnt  him  alive. 

Out  of  the  many  stories  which  one  could  tell,  here 

is  one  which  will  serve  as  an  example  of  the  methods 

of  the  bands.     On    November   26,    1907,   a    Greek 

band  of  over  sixty  men  surrounded  the  village  of 

93 


TURKEY 

Zelenltchi,  while  a  party  broke  into  the  house  of 
the  Bulgarian,  Stoyan  Gateff,  where  a  marriage 
was  being  celebrated,  killed  thirteen  men,  women, 
and   children,  and  wounded  others. 

To  add  to  all  this  orgie  of  bloodshed,  robbery, 
and  violence,  came  the  formation  of  bands  of  Mus- 
sulman Turks,  endowed  with  the  bravery  of  their 
race,  who,  while  protecting  the  Turkish  peasantry 
against  the  Christians,  pillaged  and  burnt  the  vil- 
lages of  the  latter,  and  did  their  share  of  the  killing; 
while  the  bodies  of  half -famished,  unpaid  Turkish 
troops  who  were  sent  to  search  for  concealed  arms 
over  the  countryside  naturally  lived  on  the  wretched 
Christian  peasants,  and  helped  themselves  to  all 
they  needed. 

Between  the  Greeks  and  Bulgarians  there  was 
never  a  truce  save  in  winter,  when  the  snow  lay 
deep  upon  the  Balkans,  but  sometimes  the  Serb 
would  join  the  Greek  bands  in  their  attacks  on  the 
Bulgarians.  Thus  organised  brigandage  terrorised 
the  countryside,  and  the  bands,  when  they  ran  short 
of  money  or  supplies,  did  not  hesitate  to  rob  even 
the  people  of  their  own  kin,  whose  cause  they 
were  espousing,  levying  blackmail  upon  them,  and 
burning  their  villages  if  demands  were  not  satisfied. 
It  is  not  to  be  wondered  at  that  a  large  propor- 
tion of  the  Christian  population  found  the  succour 
of  their  ferocious  brethren  somewhat  irksome,  and 
were  ready  to  welcome  the  pacific  programme  of 
the  Young  Turks.  It  will  be  remembered  that  when 
Bulgaria  declared  her  independence  last  year  the 
94 


DISCONTENT    IN    THE    ARMY 

Bulgarian  peasants  in  Macedonia  held  meetings  at 
which  they  denounced  the  Principality  and  sent  a 
memorial  to  Prince  Ferdinand  to  warn  him  that 
they  would  hold  him  responsible  for  whatever  evil 
might  now  befall  them,  as  the  result  of  his  action. 
Of  all  these  Christian  propagandists  the  Bulgarians 
aroused  most  sympathy  in  Europe;  for  they  are  a 
brave  and  straightforward  people.  They  had  good 
reason  to  hate  the  Greeks,  who  had  always  perse- 
cuted them.  When,  in  1903,  the  Bulgarian  exarchists 
in  Macedonia,  with  their  hundreds  of  small  armed 
bands,  carried  on  a  gallant  but  hopeless  guerilla  war 
against  the  Turkish  regular  troops,  the  Greek  Mace- 
donians remained  neutral,  but  worked  against  their 
fellow-Christians  after  a  fashion  characteristically 
Hellenic;  they  assisted  the  Turks  by  betraying  and 
denouncing  to  them  the  Bulgarian  rebels;  for  in  their 
zeal  to  forward  their  ultimate  political  designs  they 
were  not  ill  pleased  to  witness  the  extermination  by 
the  Turks  of  their  fellow-Christians  who  repudiated 
the  Patriarch  and  refused  to  become  Hellenised.  It 
was  not  until  1904  that  Greek  bands,  led  by  officers 
of  the  Greek  regular  army,  crossed  the  frontier  into 
Macedonia  to  wage  war  not  only  against  the  propa- 
ganda of  the  Bulgarian  exarchists,  but  also  that 
of  the  Wallach  inhabitants,  who  desired  to  throw 
off  the  tyrannical  supremacy  of  the  Greek  Patriarch 
and  have  an  Exarch  of  their  own,  as  the  Bulgarians 
had,  with  their  own  schools  and  churches  in  which 
their  national  language  could  be  used.  The  Sultan, 
who  was  ever  playing  one  Christian  sect  off  against 
95 


TURKEY 

another,  and  made  no  real  effort  to  stop  the  fratri- 
cidal strife  that  served  his  designs,  now  gave  his 
encouragement  to  the  Wallach  propaganda,  for  this 
did  not  threaten  the  integrity  of  his  Empire  as  did 
the  propaganda  of  the  Greeks  and  Serbs,  there  being 
no  question  of  annexation  of  any  Wallach  districts 
of  Macedonia  to  the  distant  kingdom  of  the  Wal- 
lachs'  kin,  Roumania. 

The  Bulgarians  proved  themselves  the  braver  men 
in  this  racial  struggle;  but  the  Greek  bands  were  the 
strongest  in  numbers  and  were  also  the  best  equipped, 
for  they  were  always  kept  well  supplied  with  am- 
munition] and  food  by  the  rich  merchants  in  Athens. 
The  Greek  bands  chiefly  distinguished  themselves 
by  attacking  unprotected  villages  and  slaughtering 
unarmed  peasants;  half-a-dozen  brave  Turkish  gen- 
darmes have  on  occasion  sufficed  to  rout  the  largest 
of  these  bands.  I  need  not  say  that  the  unfortunate 
Turkish  peasants,  being  regarded  as  enemies  by  all 
parties,  suffered  severely  at  the  hands  of  the  propa- 
gandists. 

The  condition  of  the  country  ever  got  worse.  In 
1907  there  were  one  hundred  and  thirty -three  con- 
flicts between  Turkish  troops  and  Greek  and  Bul- 
garian bands,  and  a  large  but  unrecorded  number 
of  fights  between  rival  bands:  Greek  and  Wallach; 
Greek  and  Bulgarian;  Bulgarian  and  Serb;  and  Alba- 
nian and  Serb.  The  bands  used  to  come  down  to 
the  plains  and  carry  off  the  crops  outside  Salonica 
itself.  The  Greek  Committee  sent  a  manifesto  to 
the  villages  round  Salonica  ordering  the  villagers, 
96 


DISCONTENT    IN    THE    ARMY 

under  pain  of  death,  to  become  converts  to  Ortho- 
doxy and  to  accept  the  Patriarch,  and  have  them- 
selves inscribed  as  Greeks  upon  the  census  papers. 
Shortly  before  the  Sultan's  proclamation  of  the  Con- 
stitution the  artillery  of  the  Salonica  garrison  had  to 
shell  the  reed-covered  swamps  in  the  vicinity  of  the 
city  to  drive  out  the  bands  that  had  found  shelter 
there. 

It  was  in  the  city  of  Salonica  that  the  Ottoman 
Committee  of  Union  and  Progress  decided  to  estab- 
lish the  headquarters  of  the  secret  society  that  was 
to  prepare  the  outbreak  of  rebellion  in  Macedonia, 
a  city  which,  as  being  the  cradle  of  their  liberties, 
has  already  come  to  be  regarded  as  a  sort  of  holy 
place  by  patriotic  Turks.  It  is  a  city  worthy  to  be 
the  scene  of  the  initiation  of  one  of  the  world's  great 
movements.  The  splendid  seaport,  on  the  acquisi- 
tion of  which  Austria  had  set  her  heart,  impresses 
every  visitor  with  a  sense  of  a  peculiar  nobility  with 
which  it  is  invested  by  its  aspect,  situation,  and 
history.  Stately  and  beautiful  is  the  approach  to 
it  from  the  sea  as  one  sails  up  the  fifty-mile  broad 
Gulf  of  Salonica;  on  the  right  the  undulating  land 
of  Cassandra,  with  grassy,  tree-studded  shores,  and 
windmills  on  the  skyline  testifying  to  the  productive- 
ness of  the  fields  beyond;  on  the  left  the  mountain 
ranges  of  Thessaly;  with  peaks  whose  names  are 
known  to  every  school-boy  —  Pelion  to  the  south, 
then  Ossa,  and,  near  the  head  of  the  Gulf,  a  noble 
mountain  mass  towering  over  the  lesser  heights, 
with  snowy  summits  ten  thousand  feet  above  the 
97 


TURKEY 

sea,   Mount  Olympus  itself,  the  abode  of  the  old 
gods. 

From  the  busy  quay  of  Salonica  one  looks  across 
the  blue  water  at  the  snows  of  Olympus  and  a  wonder- 
ful far  panorama  of  hills  and  dales  of  classic  Greece; 
and  Salonica  itself  is  a  fair  city  to  look  upon  from 
the  sea,  with  its  gleaming  white  houses  and  minarets, 
and  dark  groves  of  cypress  sloping  up  to  the  ancient 
castle  and  fortifications.  I  need  not  recall  here  the 
great  part  which  Thessalonica  played  in  the  old  days 
when  Persians,  Athenians,  Macedonians,  Romans, 
Normans  of  Sicily,  and  Saracens  in  succession  con- 
quered and  held  the  famous  port,  the  principal  city 
between  Rome  and  the  East;  its  vicissitudes  and 
many  bloody  sieges.  Old  Thessalonica,  with  its 
Greek,  Roman,  and  Byzantine  ruins,  relics  of  "sad, 
half-forgotten  things  and  battles  long  ago,"  the 
thronged  city  where  St.  Paul  preached  and  worked 
with  his  hands  among  the  Macedonian  artisans,  as 
the  modern  Salonica  has  once  again  come  to  the  fore- 
front in  the  shaping  of  the  world's  history,  and 
its  citizens  walk  proudly  because  here  dawned  the 
liberty  of  the  Ottomans,  with  its  inspiring  hopes. 
There  is  something  about  the  atmosphere  of  Salo- 
nica which  makes  it  seem  a  fitting  place  to  be  the 
birthplace  of  a  great  movement.  One  feels  freer  on 
its  broad  quay  and  in  its  clean,  well-paved  streets 
than  in  the  narrow,  ever  muddy  lanes  which  im- 
prison one  in  Constantinople.  The  climate  for  the 
greater  part  of  the  year  is  most  exhilarating,  and 
the  inhabitants  of  this  white  city,  "ever  delicately 
98 


DISCONTENT    IN    THE    ARMY 

walking  through  most  pellucid  air,"  seem  more 
vivacious  and  brisk,  and  are  said  to  be  more 
enlightened,  more  industrious,  and  shrewder  than 
those  of  the  capital. 

Even  under  the  tyranny  and  corruption  of  the 
old  regime  things  were  fairly  well  ordered  in  Salonica, 
and  the  municipal  authorities  did  some  good  work, 
as  the  appearance  of  the  streets  shows,  though  they 
did  appropriate,  in  the  shape  of  irregular  salaries, 
one-half  of  the  rates.  Salonica,  too,  enjoyed  a  meas- 
ure of  liberty,  even  in  those  dark  days,  and  men 
could  do  here  many  things  which  would  have  ensured 
their  prompt  punishment  in  Constantinople.  For 
example,  though  meetings  of  any  description  were 
banned  by  the  Palace,  and  a  man  could  not  invite 
two  or  three  friends  to  dine  with  him  in  his  house 
without  permission,  and  though  to  be  found  guilty 
of  being  a  Freemason  was  to  incur  the  death  penalty. 
Freemasonry  (French,  Grand  Orient,  Spanish,  and 
Italian)  flourished  in  Salonica;  there  were  five  Ma- 
sonic Lodges  in  the  town  throughout  the  long  years 
of  despotism,  though  of  course  the  Lodges  had  no 
fixed  habitations,  and  the  Masons  used  to  meet  in 
whatever  house  or  perhaps  lonely  spot  in  the  open 
country  was  at  any  time  deemed  to  be  the  safest 
place. 

In  Salonica,  with  its  teeming  population  of  Turks, 
Greeks,  Jews,  Albanians,  Bulgarians,  and  Levan- 
tines of  many  mixed  races,  speaking  divers  tongues, 
it  is  easy  for  men  to  assume  disguises  and  difficult 
for  spies  to  trace  conspiracies.  In  no  city  does  one 
99 


TURKEY 

come  across  a  greater  variety  of  race  and  picturesque 
costume  than  in  these  busy  bazaars  and  streets  — 
the  Jews  (who  here  number  fifty  thousand)  who  look 
as  if  they  had  stepped  straight  out  of  the  Venice 
of  Shakespeare's  time,  the  men  in  gabardines,  the 
women  in  robes  such  as  were  worn  by  the  ancestors 
of  these  people  when  they  were  driven  out  of  Spain 
by  Ferdinand  and  Isabella,  still  speaking  among 
themselves  a  strange  Spanish  dialect  —  swaggering 
Albanians  in  their  picturesque  becoming  national 
costume  of  which  Byron  sang  —  burly  Bulgarian 
peasants  —  priests  of  all  denominations,  including 
Russian  monks  of  neighbouring  Mount  Athos,  emis- 
saries from  that  holy  promontory  on  which  for  one 
thousand  years  no  woman  or  even  animal  of  the 
female  sex  has  been  allowed  to  set  foot,  where 
monks  in  their  thousands  dwell  in  ascetic  retirement 
in  monasteries  perched  like  the  lamaseries  of  Tibet 
among  the  mountains,  while  in  the  wildest  and  most 
inaccessible  spots  anchorites  have  their  hermitages 
and  live  in  complete  solitude  after  the  manner  of 
their  predecessor,  St.  Anthony. 

The  fact  that  it  was  possible  in  this  crowded  city 
to  escape  observation  and  to  organise  secret  societies 
made  Salonica  the  natural  centre  of  the  Young  Turk 
movement  in  Macedonia.  Secret  political  organisa- 
tion already  existed  there,  and  the  Internal  Organi- 
sations of  the  Bulgarian  revolutionary  party  had 
had  its  head-quarters  there  since  about  1895. 


100 


CHAPTER    VIII 

THE    CENTRAL    COMMITTEE 

THUS,  in  the  summer  of  1906,  the  Young  Turk 
movement  crystalHsed  into  a  secret  society  in 
Salonica,  so  well  organised  that  it  effected  its 
purpose  despite  the  universal  espionage,  its  work,  of 
course,  being  facilitated  by  the  fact  that  in  every  part 
of  the  Empire  the  system  of  administration  had  be- 
come so  hateful  to  the  people  that,  outside  the  horde 
of  spies,  and  those  who  prospered  under  the  methods 
of  the  old  regime,  few  men  could  be  found  so  base 
as  to  betray  the  leaders  to  the  authorities.  It  will 
make  a  wonderful  story,  when  it  is  fully  told,  that 
of  these  men  working  in  secret  and  danger,  many 
losing  their  lives  and  still  more  their  fortunes,  but 
spreading  their  propaganda,  becoming  ever  stronger, 
until  at  last,  having  secured  the  support  of  a  great 
army  and  a  powerful  Church,  they  won  liberty  for 
Turkey  by  the  almost  bloodless  revolution  that  has 
taken  all  Europe  by  surprise. 

This  secret  society  was  to  a  large  extent  modelled 
on  Freemasonry,  and  a  considerable  proportion  of 
the  early  associates  (Mussulmans  for  the  most 
part,  with  some  Jews)  were  members  of  the  Masonic 
Lodges  in  Salonica.  The  machinery  of  Freemasonry, 
101 


TURKEY 

however,  was  not  directly  employed  to  further  the 
propaganda,  and  the  Lodges  took  no  official  cogni- 
zance of  this  political  movement.  It  would  obviously 
have  been  too  dangerous  to  discuss  such  a  conspiracy 
as  this  one  at  Masonic  gatherings,  where  the  treason 
of  one  man  could  destroy  so  many.  The  methods 
of  the  Italian  secret  societies,  where  a  member  is 
introduced  to  two  or  three  of  the  affiliated  only  and 
so  cannot  betray  more  than  this  number,  were  there- 
fore adopted  by  those  who  framed  the  regulations 
of  the  new  organisation.  But  still  Freemasonry  was 
a  great  help  to  the  cause;  for  a  member  of  the  secret 
society  who  happened  to  be  also  a  Mason,  while  he 
was  seeking,  as  was  his  duty,  to  gain  fresh  initiates, 
could  more  readily  approach  a  brother  Mason  than 
any  other  man  with  this  purpose,  knowing  that  the 
very  fact  of  being  a  Mason  indicated  a  natural  incli- 
nation to  be  in  sympathy  with  the  aims  of  the  Young 
Turks,  and  feeling  also  that  he  could  rely  upon  the 
secrecy  and  fidelity  of  one  of  the  fraternity. 

The  secret  society  was  first  known  as  the  *' Com- 
mittee of  Liberty,"  but  shortly  after  its  creation  it 
was  amalgamated  with  the  "Ottoman  Committee 
of  Union  and  Progress"  in  Paris,  and  became  the 
working  centre  of  that  organisation.  From  that 
time  the  "Ottoman  Committee  of  Union  and  Prog- 
ress" had  its  secret  headquarters  in  Salonica,  while 
Ahmed  Riza  and  his  associates  remained  in  Paris  to 
form  an  important  branch  committee  that  was  able 
to  further  the  cause  in  many  ways  from  the  secure 
sanctuary  of  a  foreign  capital.  Thus  it  was  in  Paris, 
102 


THE    CENTRAL    COMMITTEE 

in  1907,  more  than  a  year  after  the  estabhshment  of 
the  Committee's  head -quarters  in  Salonica,  that,  at 
the  instance  of  the  Paris  branch,  there  was  held  that 
Congress  of  Turkish  revolutionaries  of  which  I  have 
already  spoken,  at  which  Committees  representing 
the  various  races  of  the  Empire  agreed  to  co-operate 
with  the  Young  Turks. 

The  secret  central  committee,  therefore,  held  its 
meetings  in  Salonica,  and  kept  up  a  constant  com- 
munication with  branch  committees  in  Scutari  of 
Albania,  Monastir,  Janina,  and  other  towns,  and 
later  it  had  its  small  local  committee  in  nearly  every 
village  of  Macedonia  and  Albania.  Before  the  out- 
break of  the  revolution  it  had  established  its  branch 
committees  in  all  the  important  towns  of  Asiatic 
Turkey.^  Of  those  who  composed  the  Salonica  Com- 
mittee I  have  met  many.  They  were  all  men  from 
what  we  should  term  the  upper  and  middle  classes  — 
young  oflficers  in  the  army  who  had  passed  through 
the  military  schools  and  had  profited  by  the  splen- 
did system  of  instruction  introduced  by  the  genius  of 
Baron  von  der  Goltz  —  the  one  good  thing  for  which 
Turkey  has  reason  to  be  grateful  to  Germany;  young 
civil  servants  of  the  different  State  departments; 
land-owning  Macedonian  beys;  professors;  lawyers; 
doctors  and  some  of  the  ulemas.  Of  officers  of  high 
rank  and  of  the  heads  of  the  Civil  Service  there  were 
none;  for  most  of  these  were  creatures  of  the  Palace, 
and  such  as  may  have  had  sympathy  with  the  Young 
Turk  cause  were,  in  consequence  of  their  position, 
too  closely  watched  by  the  Yildiz  spies  to  take  an 
103 


TURKEY 

active  part  in  the  movement.  All  the  men  —  for 
the  most  part  men  under  middle  age  —  who  became 
members  of  the  secret  committee  were  distinguished 
for  their  intense  and  unselfish  patriotism,  men  who 
commanded  the  respect  and  admiration  of  every 
foreigner  who  has  come  in  contact  with  them.  This 
revolution  did  not  come  from  below,  from  debased 
city  mobs  or  ignorant  peasantry,  but  from  above, 
from  all  that  is  best  in  Turkey.  The  self-seeking 
demagogue  had  no  part  in  this  revolution.  These 
men,  who  devoted  their  lives  to  overthrowing  the 
Despotism,  represented  the  honest  and  patriotic 
Ottoman  gentry,  men  who  placed  country  above 
self-interest,  the  natural  leaders  of  the  people,  be- 
longing "to  a  dominant  race  which  knows  how  to 
command  men  —  a  more  useful  quality  than  much 
administrative  knowledge. 

Some  of  the  principal  members  of  the  Committee 
of  Union  and  Progress  in  Salonica  spoke  to  me  when 
I  was  in  that  city,  in  November  last,  without  reserve 
—  as  they  will  do  to  an  Englishman  who  has  gained 
their  confidence  —  concerning  their  early  secret  or- 
ganisation; for  now  that  the  danger  is  almost  over 
they  are  quite  willing  that  the  methods  which  they 
were  compelled  to  adopt  before  the  granting  of  the 
Constitution  should  be  made  known.  To  under- 
stand with  sympathy  what  I  am  about  to  describe, 
and  recognise  how  fully  justified  were  such  assas- 
sinations as  were  ordered  by  the  Committee,  one 
must  bear  in  mind  the  terrible  nature  of  the  late 
regime;  how  thousands  of  spies  were  scattered  over 
104 


THE    CENTRAL    COMMITTEE 

the  country  whose  business  it  was  to  denounce  sus- 
pects to  the  Palace;  how  many  of  the  best  men  in 
the  country  suddenly  disappeared  from  their  wives 
and  famiHes,  never  to  return;  how  torture  and 
death  were  the  penalties  for  those  who  sought  to 
set  bounds  to  the  Sultan's  absolutism. 

The  machinery  of  this  wonderful  secret  Society, 
which,  throughout  the  three  years  preceding  the 
granting  of  the  Constitution,  did  its  dangerous  work 
so  well,  so  unpityingly  when  the  occasion  demanded, 
but  always  so  justly,  has  been  described  to  me  as 
follows  by  some  of  its  best  known  founders: 

The  propagandist  work  of  a  member  of  the  Society 
was  two-fold.  First,  he  had  to  gain  adherents  to  the 
cause  among  all  classes  of  the  Turkish  population 
by  using  arguments,  explanations,  and  exhorta- 
tions. Secondly,  he  had  to  persuade  certain  care- 
fully selected  persons  from  among  his  relations  and 
more  intimate  friends  to  become  affiliated  to  the 
Society,  and  this  he  had  to  do  with  the  greatest 
caution.  Thus,  a  member  of  the  Society,  whom  we 
will  call  A,  would  approach  his  friend  and,  perhaps, 
brother  Mason,  B,  whom  he  knew  to  be  a  righteous 
and  patriotic  man,  to  whom  the  methods  of  the  Des- 
potism must  necessarily  be  detestable,  and  carefully 
sound  him.  Having  satisfied  himself  that  his  friend 
was  inspired  by  a  true  zeal,  and  was  prepared  to 
make  great  sacrifices  for  his  country's  salvation,  A 
would  say  to  B,  "I  have  a  secret,  a  great  mystery, 
which  I  should  like  to  confide  to  you.  Will  you 
swear  never  to  divulge  what  I  am  about  to  say  to 
105 


TURKEY 

any  one?"  On  B's  taking  the  required  oath,  A 
would  explain  to  him  that  there  existed  a  powerful 
secret  society  of  which  he  himself  was  a  member, 
whose  aim  was  the  destruction  of  the  existing  sys- 
tem of  government,  and  would  then  ask  whether  as 
a  patriot  he  would  like  to  join  the  brotherhood, 
warning  him  at  the  same  time  of  the  serious  step 
he  was  about  to  take  and  of  the  great  dangers 
which  he  would  have  to  face. 

On  B's  replying  in  the  affirmative,  A  would  leave 
him,  and  a  few  days  later  two  messengers  would 
come  to  B  and  call  upon  him  in  the  name  of  his 
friend  A  to  follow  them.  The  messengers  would 
lead  B  to  a  lonely  place,  there  blindfold  him,  and 
then  take  him  to  some  retired  house  or  recess  in  the 
forest  which  had  been  selected  as  the  place  of  his 
initiation.  Here  he  would  be  ordered  to  stand,  the 
bandage  still  across  his  eyes,  while  he  was  addressed 
by  two  or  more  eloquent  speakers,  who  would  draw 
a  vivid  picture  of  the  evils  of  the  tyranny,  of  the 
certain  destruction  of  the  Ottoman  Empire  to  which 
ill  government  was  leading,  of  the  great  suffering 
which  the  Palace  espionage  had  inflicted  on  so  many 
of  their  friends  and  relations,  and  would  show  in 
burning  words  that  it  was  the  duty  of  every  good 
Ottoman  to  do  his  utmost  by  all  possible  methods 
to  assist  in  the  liberation  of  Turkey.  Turks  often 
possess  great  oratorical  powers,  and  I  am  assured 
that  in  nearly  every  instance  the  candidate  would 
be  moved  to  tears  by  these  impressive  exhortations. 
The  candidate  would  be  sworn  to  secrecy  and  fidel- 
106 


THE    CENTRAL    COMMITTEE 

ity  and  unquestioning  obedience  to  the  orders  of 
the  Committee,  on    the  Koran  and  on  the  sword, 
and  he  would  then  be  solemnly  declared  to  be  affil- 
iated to  the   secret  Society.     In  the  rare  cases  in 
which  the  candidate  was  not  a  Mussulman  the  oath 
would  of  course  be  administered  in  some  other  way. 
The  bandage  would  then  be  removed  from  his 
eyes  and  he  would  find  himself  in  the  presence  of 
five  masked  men  wearing  long  cloaks.     One  of  these 
would  again  address  the  initiate.     First,  he  would 
explain  to  him  that  precautions  to  secure  secrecy 
and  to  make  treason  difficult  were  indispensable  to 
the  very  existence  of  the  Society,  for  the  spies  of  the 
Palace  were  ever  around  it,  while  it  was  possible  that 
some  were  even  within  its  circle;  that  therefore  it 
was  expedient  that  the  initiates  should  be  as  little 
known  to  each 'other  as  possible;  and  that  it  was  on 
this  account  that  those  who  now  addressed  him  were 
masked,  and,  moreover,  persons  whom  he  had  never 
previously  met,  so  that  it  might  be  impossible  for 
him  to  identify  them  by  their  voices.     The  speaker 
would  then  proceed  to  explain  to  the  initiate  his 
duties  and  obligations.     He  would  remind  him  that 
the  Committee  condemned  to  death  not  only  trai- 
tors but  those  who  disobeyed  its  orders,  and  impress 
upon  him  that  by  the  oath  he  had  taken  in  the  name 
of  God  and  Mohammed  his  life  would  have  to  be 
devoted  to  the  cause  until  Turkey  was  freed,  that 
he  belonged  body  and  soul  to  the  Society,  and  would 
have  to  go  to  whatever  part  of  the  world  he  was  sent, 
and  do  whatever  the  Society  bade  him,  even  were  it 
107 


TURKEY 

to  kill  his  own  brother.  At  the  conclusion  of  this 
ritual  B  would  again  be  blindfolded  and  be  led  away 
by  the  two  messengers. 

For  some  weeks  or  months  after  this  initiation  B 
would  undergo  a  term  of  probation;  orders  would 
come  to  him  by  secret  channels  and  he  would  obey 
them,  but  he  would  see  no  member  of  the  Society. 
His  introducer,  A,  was  responsible  for  his  fidelity, 
and  should  B  so  act  as  to  be  condemned  to  death  by 
the  Society,  it  would  be  the  hand  of  his  friend  A 
which  would  have  to  slay  him.  At  last,  B  having 
proved  himself  worthy,  the  messengers  would  again 
summon  him  to  a  meeting  of  the  secret  Committee, 
and  after  a  ceremony  somewhat  similar  to  the  first, 
he  would  be  affiliated  to  one  of  the  companies  into 
which  the  Society  was  divided,  each  company  con- 
taining about  one  hundred  and  fifty  members.  But 
B  would  be  made  known  to  four  men  of  his  com- 
pany and  no  more,  for  it  was  in  circles  of  five  only 
that  the  initiates  used  to  meet.  So  it  was  impos- 
sible for  any  false  member  to  betray  more  than  five 
comrades  —  the  four  of  his  own  circle  and  his  intro- 
ducer. In  each  circle  of  five  one  member  served  as 
a  link  with  the  other  circles  of  the  company;  while 
each  company  had  certain  members  who  were  the 
links  between  it  and  the  other  companies  and  with 
the  Central  Committee. 

Of  this  secret  Central  Committee  I  can  say  little; 
for  though  now,  the  Despotism  having  been  de- 
stroyed, the  members  of  the  Committee  of  Union 
and  Progress  have  come  out  in  the  open,  and  every 
108 


THE    CENTRAL    COMMITTEE 

one  knows  who  they  are,  they  still  appoint  a  secret 
central  organisation,  the  names  of  whose  members 
no  man  will  tell  you  and  few  men  know.  But  one 
is  assured  that  this  Committee  has  no  president 
and  no  leaders,  that  all  are  equal  in  it,  and  that  a 
new  chairman  is  elected  at  each  meeting;  for  indi- 
vidual ambition  is  deprecated,  and  it  was  the  origi- 
nal aim  to  make  of  this  a  band  of  brothers  working 
with  unselfish  devotion,  unknown,  without  desire 
for  any  recognition,  for  their  country.  The  forma- 
tion of  any  dominant  group  or  camarilla  within  the 
Central  Committee  is  made  impossible  by  the  reg- 
ulations which  govern  its  procedure. 

Just  before  the  proclamation  of  the  Constitu- 
tion the  initiates  of  the  Committee  of  Union  and 
Progress,  in  Macedonia  alone,  numbered  fifteen 
thousand.  It  was  the  duty  of  each  member  to 
spread  the  propaganda  by  conversing  with  men  of 
all  classes,  a  delicate  and  very  dangerous  task,  as 
one  may  well  imagine.  Many  were  arrested  at  the 
instance  of  the  spies,  to  be  imprisoned  or  to  lose 
their  lives.  Many  of  the  captured  were  taken  to  the 
Palace  and  offered  large  bribes  in  Return  for  infor- 
mation, and,  this  failing,  tortures  were  applied,  but 
with  no  effect.  There  was  not  one  single  instance 
of  the  betrayal  of  his  brethren  by  a  member  of 
the  Society. 

The  organisation  of  this  wonderful  secret  Society 
was   very   complete.      To   meet  the  expenses   each 
member  was  compelled   to  contribute  a  fixed  per- 
centage of  his  income  to  the  Committee  chest,  while 
109 


TURKEY 

rich  members,  in  addition  to  this  tax,  made  gener- 
ous donations  when  funds  were  required.  Arms  and 
ammunition  were  secretly  purchased.  A  consider- 
able sum  was  set  apart  annually  to  provide  for  the 
families  of  members  who  lost  life  or  liberty  while 
working  for  the  cause.  Their  several  duties  were 
apportioned  to  the  members.  There  were  the  mes- 
sengers who,  disguised  in  various  ways,  went  to  and 
fro  over  the  Empire  carrying  verbal  reports  and 
instructions,  for  naturally  communications  betw^een 
branches  of  the  association  and  orders  to  individual 
members  could  not  be  confided  to  the  postal  and 
telegraph  services.  There  were  the  men  who  had 
to  assassinate  those  whom  the  Committee  had  con- 
demned to  death  —  Government  oflBcials  who  were 
working  against  the  movement  with  a  dangerous 
zeal,  and  Palace  spies  who  were  getting  on  the  scent. 
Other  members  were  sent  out  to  act  as  spies  in  the 
interest  of  the  cause,  and  the  contre  espionage  became 
at  last  so  thorough  that  it  bafiled  the  espionage  of  the 
Palace.  Men  whom  the  Palace  paid  as  its  spies  were 
often  the  loyal  agents  of  the  secret  Society.  The 
Committee  had  its  agents  in  every  department  of 
the  Government,  in  the  Civil  Service,  in  the  War 
Office,  in  the  Custom  House,  in  the  post  and  tele- 
graph offices,  even  in  the  foreign  post-offices  in 
Constantinople  and  other  big  cities;  so  that  official 
communications  were  intercepted  and  read  and  the 
most  secret  designs  of  the  Palace  were  revealed  to 
the  Committee  and  could  therefore  be  circumvented. 
The  Committee  had  its  spies  in  the  Turkish  Em- 
110 


THE    CENTRAL    COMMITTEE 

bassies  in  foreign  countries,  among  the  retainers  of 
influential  Pashas,  and  in  the  Yildiz  Palace  itself. 
For  example,  a  correspondent,  writing  to  the  Times 
from  Salonica,  tells  the  story  of  Dr.  Baha-ud-Din, 
formerly  physician  to  one  of  the  Imperial  princes, 
who  had  been  exiled  to  the  Russian  frontier.  He 
returned  secretly  to  the  capital,  and  for  the  three 
months  preceding  the  revolution  remained  in  the 
Palace  undetected,  supplying  the  Committee  with  a 
good  deal  of  useful  information.  Suspicion  fell  upon 
him  a  few  days  before  the  revolution  broke  out,  so 
he  had  to  flee  for  his  life,  and  became  an  active 
member  of  the  Committee  in  Salonica. 

Then  there  was  the  host  of  propagandists  who 
were  scattered  all  over  the  Empire  doing  their  dan- 
gerous w^ork,  urging  the  civil  population  to  embar- 
rass the  Government  by  a  refusal  to  pay  taxes  and 
to  prepare  for  a  general  rising,  and  persuading  the 
soldiery  of  the  righteousness  of  the  movement,  and 
obtaining  their  promise  not  to  fight  against  their 
own  countrymen  when  ordered  to  do  so.  So  as  to 
obtain  easy  access  to  houses  and  barracks,  Turkish 
officers  disguised  themselves  as  hawkers  of  cheap 
jewellery  and  ribbons,  or  as  the  peripatetic  sutlers 
who  sell  sherbet  and  little  comforts  to  the  Turkish 
soldier;  and  in  their  packs  were  always  concealed 
the  revolutionary  tracts  that  were  to  spread  the 
propaganda.  One  well-known  officer  for  long  kept 
a  barber's  shop  in  Baghdad,  and  inoculated  his  cus- 
tomers with  the  doctrines  of  the  conspiracy.  Dr. 
Nazim  Bey,  who  had  been  exiled,  wandered  over 
111 


TURKEY 

Asia  Minor  for  eighteen  months,  sometimes  dis- 
guised as  a  peddler,  sometimes  as  a  hodja,  in  order 
to  win  over  the  AnatoHan  regiments.  He  made  initi- 
ates among  the  oflScers,  and  conversed  with  the  men 
to  such  good  effect  that  when  the  Sultan,  in  the  last 
day  of  the  old  regime,  despatched  several  battalions 
of  the  Anatolian  army,  to  crush  the  military  insur- 
rection in  Macedonia,  these  troops  not  only  refused 
to  fire  on  their  comrades,  but  joined  forces  with  them. 
One  remarkable  feature  of  the  propaganda  was 
the  great  part  taken  in  it  by  the  Turkish  women. 
They  were  largely  employed,  for  example,  in  the 
delivery  of  messages  and  the  carrying  of  documents; 
for  it  was  easy  for  the  wife  of  a  member  of  the  Com- 
mittee to  visit  the  wives  of  other  members  without 
attracting  observation.  The  respect  that  is  paid  to 
women  in  Turkey  gives  them  immunity  from  being 
searched;  the  women's  apartments  in  a  Turkish 
house  are  held  to  be  inviolable,  and  a  police  officer 
would  not  venture  to  infringe  these  cherished  cus- 
toms without  very  weighty  cause.  The  following 
incident  exemplifies  this:  Shortly  after  the  revolu- 
tion had  made  the  Committee  the  virtual  ruler  of 
Turkey,  some  young  officers  were  sent  to  pay  a 
domiciliary  visit  to  the  house  of  a  Pasha  suspected 
of  being  a  party  to  a  reactionary  plot.  They  arrested 
the  Pasha,  but  made  a  vain  search  for  incriminatory 
documents.  At  last  they  came  across  a  chest  that 
had  obviously  been  concealed,  and  felt  confident  that 
they  had  at  last  discovered  what  they  were  seeking. 
At  this  juncture  the  Pasha's  wife  came  forward  and 
112 


TURKISH   MARKET-WOMAN   IN   STREET   DRESS 


THE    CENTRAL    COMMITTEE 

stated  that  the  chest  contained  her  jewels  and  other 
property;  whereupon  the  oflScers  refrained  from  open- 
ing it,  and,  saluting  the  lady,  left  the  house. 

The  first  and  most  important  task  before  the  Com- 
mittee was,  of  course,  that  of  bringing  round  to  the 
cause  the  Macedonian  garrison  —  the  Third  Army 
Corps.  The  disaffection  of  these  troops,  the  reasons 
for  which  I  have  explained,  had  in  places  manifested 
itself  in  open  mutiny,  and  the  incompetence  and 
corruption  of  some  of  the  officers  of  superior  rank, 
w^ho  were  indebted  to  Palace  favouritism  for  their 
position,  filled  both  the  junior  officers  and  the  rank 
and  file  with  an  ever-increasing  disgust.  By  degrees 
a  number  of  the  young  officers  were  affiliated  to  the 
Committee,  and  received  instructions  to  win  over 
the  rank  and  file.  The  fact  that  the  troops  were 
moving  about  in  small  bodies,  hunting  down  the 
Bulgarian  bands,  rendered  this  proceeding  the  more 
easy;  for  while  engaging  in  this  work,  regimental 
officers,  unrestrained  by  the  supervision  of  their 
superiors,  could  give  political  instruction  to  the 
men,  and  were  able  to  hold  meetings  among  them- 
selves without  attracting  the  attention  of  spies;  the 
company  commanders  used  also  to  deliver  lectures 
to  their  men  in  out-of-the-way  places,  where  any 
stranger  would  be  conspicuous  and  Palace  spies 
would  be  immediately  recognised.  Whenever  a  spy 
was  discovered  he  promptly  disappeared,  soldiers 
who  had  taken  the  oath  of  fealty  to  the  Committee 
being  given  the  word  to  kill  him.  At  last  the  whole 
Macedonian  army  was  won  over  to  the  cause  of  the 
113 


TURKEY 

Young  Turks,  and  as  a  consequence  of  the  work 
performed  by  the  disguised  officers  in  other  parts  of 
the  Empire,  the  Second  Army  Corps,  which  garri- 
sons the  Vilayet  of  Adrianople,  also  contained  a 
large  proportion  of  officers  and  men  in  sympathy 
with  the  movement  —  troops  hostile  to  the  Despot- 
ism thus  enclosing  the  capital  on  all  sides  —  while 
on  the  farther  shore  of  the  Bosphorus,  Anatolia, 
whose  sturdy  peasantry  supplies  the  Ottoman  Em- 
pire with  its  finest  troops,  had  been  similarly  pre- 
pared by  Dr.  Nazim  Bey  and  numerous  officers. 

To  those  Englishmen  who  knew  something  of  the 
Turkish  army  it  appeared  an  amazing  thing  that 
these  soldiers,  who  worshipped  the  Sultan  with  a 
blind  faith  not  only  as  their  sovereign,  but  as  the 
head  of  the  one  true  religion,  "the  Commander  of 
the  Faithful,"  "the  Shadow  of  God  upon  earth," 
—  however  discontented  they  might  be,  however 
ready  to  mutiny,  as  they  sometimes  did  mutiny, 
against  their  officers  —  could  be  persuaded  to  join 
in  a  movement  of  which  the  avowed  object  was  the 
deposition  of  the  Sultan  Abdul  Hamid.  The  soldier 
could  only  be  won  over  by  convincing  him  that  relig- 
ion itself  commanded  the  overthrow  of  the  tyrant. 
It  will  be  remembered  how,  in  1876,  the  Sheikh-ul- 
Islam,  as  chief  of  the  interpreters  of  the  Sacred  Law, 
decreed  that  the  Sultan  Abd-ul-Aziz  should  be 
deposed  because,  in  ruining  the  State  which  God 
had  confided  to  him,  he  had  broken  his  sacred  trust, 
and  could  no  longer  be  head  of  the  believers.  The 
young  officers  put  the  case  in  the  same  way,  and 
114 


THE    CENTRAL    COMMITTEE 

in  simple  words,  to  the  honest  and  devout  soldiery; 
they  quoted  the  passages  in  the  Koran  which  de- 
nounce tyranny,  and  showed  that  the  Sultan  was 
not  true  to  his  country,  and  therefore  had  forfeited 
the  privileges  God  had  lent  to  him.  The  fact  that 
Austria  and  Germany  had  been  granted  conces- 
sions to  construct  railways  through  Turkish  territory 
(the  proposed  railway  through  the  Sanjak  of  Novi- 
Bazaar,  which  would  afford  Austria  railway  connec- 
tion with  Salonica,  and  the  German-owned  Baghdad 
railway)  was  a  proof  to  the  soldier  that  the  Palace 
was  selling  the  country  bit  by  bit  to  the  foreigner. 

During  the  early  days  of  the  propaganda,  hodjaa 
who  had  joined  the  Committee,  and  oflScers  dis- 
guised as  hodjas,  being  freely  admitted  into  bar- 
racks in  their  capacity  of  preachers,  advocated  these 
doctrines,  and  satisfied  the  religious  scruples  of  the 
men;  and  when,  later,  the  Sheikh-ul-Islam  declared 
himself  in  favour  of  the  Constitution,  there  remained 
no  doubt  in  their  minds  that  they  were  acting  as 
their  creed  commanded  in  following  tlie  lead  of  their 
young  officers.  As  a  matter  of  fact,  it  was  not  diffi- 
cult to  show  that  Abdul  Hamid,  to  quote  from  Mr. 
Hamil  Halid's  book,  "The  Diary  of  a  Young  Turk," 
was  "the  worst  enemy  of  Islam,  as  no  Moslem  ruler 
has  ever  brought  by  his  misdeeds  so  much  shame 
upon  the  faith  as  he  has.  Any  one  who  has  observed 
his  career  closely  knows  that  his  actions  are  diamet- 
rically opposed  to  the  principles  of  the  Mussul- 
man law  and  creed."  Moreover,  the  Turkish  soldier, 
like  the  soldiers  in  other  armies  and  the  majority  of 
115 


TURKEY 

healthy  young  men,  can  be  appealed  to  through  his 
stomach,  and  he  naturally  acquired  an  affection  for 
and  confidence  in  these  majors,  captains,  and  lieuten- 
ants of  the  new  school  who  sympathised  with  him, 
pitied  his  wretched  condition,  and  with  their  own 
money,  or  the  Committee  funds,  supplemented  his 
miserable  rations  and  supplied  him  with  comforts. 

Of  the  methods  of  the  propaganda  in  Macedonia 
we  learn  a  good  deal  from  the  published  letters  of 
Major  Niazi  Bey,  the  officer  who  first  raised  the 
standard  of  revolt.  He  explains  how,  gradually,  the 
young  officers,  hitherto  estranged  from  one  another 
by  the  mutual  suspicions  engendered  by  the  sys- 
tem of  espionage,  were  emboldened  by  the  patriotic 
hopes  held  up  before  them,  and  through  the  pos- 
session of  a  common  secret  became  as  a  band  of 
brothers,  mutual  confidence  and  affection  increasing 
daily;  and  how  even  those  who  had  not  been  made 
members  of  the  secret  Society,  and  knew  not  its 
mysteries,  were  convinced  by  their  aflBliated  com- 
rades that  the  Committee  was  powerful  and  just, 
and  was  working  in  the  sacred  name  of  liberty  for 
the  integrity  of  the  fatherland;  and  so  sympathised 
heart  and  soul  with  the  movement,  and  were  in 
readiness  to  co-operate  with  the  revolutionaries. 

In  the  meanwhile  the  Committee  was  steadily 
undermining  the  entire  civil  as  well  as  military  ad- 
ministration of  the  Empire.  It  acted,  as  a  member 
of  the  association  put  it  to  me,  like  a  well-ordered 
but  secret  Government.  It  kept  books  in  which 
were  inscribed  the  names  of  all  the  higher  Govern- 
116 


THE    CENTRAL    COMMITTEE 

ment  officials,  with  particulars  as  to  their  careers 
and  habits  —  their  dossiers,  in  short.  Some  of  the 
enlightened  and  right-minded  of  these  officials  had 
been  gained  over  to  the  cause;  the  others  were 
closely  watched,  and  whether  they  were  Valis,  In- 
spectors General,  or  Governors  of  districts,  or  what 
not,  their  moral  influence  was  destroyed,  and  their 
authority  was  made  impotent  by  the  fact  that  their 
subordinates,  on  whom  they  had  to  rely  for  the 
execution  of  their  wishes,  had  almost  without  excep- 
tion become  adherents  of  the  Committee. 


117 


CHAPTER  IX 

HOW   THE  REVOLUTION  BEGAN 

IT  had  been  calculated  by  the  Young  Turks  that 
the  time  would  not  be  ripe  for  their  great  coup 
until  the  autumn  of  1909,  but  the  menace 
of  further  foreign  intervention  in  Macedonia  and 
an  active  campaign  against  the  Committee,  which 
was  opened  by  the  Palace  at  the  beginning  of  1908, 
precipitated  the  revolt.  The  propaganda  had  been 
spreading  rapidly,  the  movement  had  been  prosper- 
ing, when  suddenly  the  prospect  darkened,  and  there 
were  happenings  that  threatened  even  to  break  up 
the  Society  and  shatter  the  hopes  of  the  reformers. 
It  became  known  to  the  Committee  that  the  Brit- 
ish Government  had  decided  to  withdraw  from  that 
"Concert  of  Europe,"  which  had  failed  so  signally 
in  dealing  with  the  question  of  reforms  in  Mace- 
donia, and  that  England  and  Russia  were  now  going 
to  work  together  to  introduce  a  most  drastic  scheme 
of  reform,  which  would  include  the  suppression  of 
all  the  bands  in  Macedonia,  of  whatever  race  or 
creed,  by  means  of  flying  columns  of  troops.  This 
intended  co-operation  of  England  and  Russia  greatly 
alarmed  the  Committee,  such  intervention,  in  the 
opinion  of  its  leaders,  necessarily  leading  to  the  dis- 
118 


HOW    THE    REVOLUTION    BEGAN 

integration  of  the  Ottoman  Empire,  and  to  an  im- 
mediate foreign  domination  of  Macedonia  that  would 
make  it  impossible  for  the  Committee  to  carry  on 
its  patriotic  work  in  this,  the  stronghold  of  the 
movement  and  the  contemplated  base  for  the  revo- 
lutionary campaign  in  the  following  year. 

The  Committee  of  Union  and  Progress  therefore 
held  secret  meetings  in  Salonica  in  May,  1908,  and  it 
was  decided,  in  view  of  what  was  happening,  that  it 
had  now  become  necessary  for  the  Committee  to 
reveal  to  the  European  Powers  the  fact  of  its  real 
existence  and  great  influence,  and  also  to  explain  to 
those  Powers,  especially  to  England,  whose  aim  was 
honest  but  which,  in  the  opinion  of  many  Turks, 
was  being  duped  by  Russia,  that  the  Committee 
alone  could  bring  peace  to  Macedonia,  and  that 
for  various  good  reasons  it  would  be  better  that 
Europe  should  abandon  all  these  futile  schemes  of 
reform  and  leave  Macedonia  to  work  out  her  own 
salvation. 

A  manifesto  of  the  Committee  was  therefore 
drawn  up  and  a  copy  of  it  was  despatched  to  each 
of  the  European  cabinets.  These  documents  were 
posted  in  the  foreign  post-offices  in  Salonica  by  mem- 
bers of  the  Committee.  A  friend  of  mine  told  me 
of  what  a  narrow  escape  he  had  while  taking  one 
of  these  letters  to  a  certain  foreign  post-office.  On 
entering  the  office  he  handed  the  letter  to  a  Levan- 
tine clerk,  who,  after  reading  the  superscription,  put 
to  him  the  unusual  question,  "From  whom  do  you 
bring  this  letter?"  "From  Mr.  Snider,"  replied  my 
119 


TURKEY 

friend,  with  ready  invention,  and  hastened  to  leave 
the  place.  The  clerk,  evidently  a  Palace  spy,  fol- 
lowed him  outside  and  looked  up  and  down  the 
street,  no  doubt  to  find  some  agent  whom  he  could 
send  to  follow  up  the  suspect.  My  friend  fortu- 
nately got  clear  away  before  the  pursuit  could  be 
started,  and  for  the  future  he  gave  that  post-office 
a  wide  berth. 

The  manifesto  itself  is  a  long  one.  My  quota- 
tions from  it  are  literal  translations  from  the  origi- 
nal Turkish  version.  It  speaks  in  the  name  of  the 
Committee  of  Union  and  Progress,  and,  of  course,  as 
coming  from  a  secret  society,  bears  no  signatures. 
It  opens  thus: 

"We,  the  children  of  the  fatherland  called  Tur- 
key, of  which  Macedonia  is  a  part  —  actuated  by 
the  love  which  we  bear  to  the  land  of  our  birth,  our 
desire  to  work  in  harmony  to  bring  about  its  tran- 
quillity and  welfare,  and  our  wish  to  disabuse  your 
minds  of  the  false  impression  which  we  know  you 
entertain  to  the  effect  that  we  (the  Committee  of 
Union  and  Progress)  are  few  in  number  and  mis- 
chievous in  our  aims  —  now  write  to  you  the  follow- 
ing, to  explain  to  you  from  what  evils  Macedonia  is 
really  suffering,  to  show  you  what  is  the  true  remedy 
and  the  right  path,  and  to  save  Europe  from  a  num- 
ber of  vain  efforts  and  avoidable  difficulties." 

The  manifesto  then  proceeds  to  demonstrate  that 

the  efforts  of  the    European   Powers    to   introduce 

reforms  into  Macedonia  had  not  only  been  attended 

with  no  success,  but  had  made  the  condition  of  the 

120 


HOW    THE    REVOLUTION    BEGAN 

country  worse  than  it  had  been  before  their  interfer- 
ence, and  that  all  the  so-called  remedies  that  had  so 
far  been  applied  had  been  introduced  by  foreigners 
only,  "who  assumed  an  attitude  of  generosity,"  and 
not  by  ''Ottomans,  who  must  know  more  about  their 
own  country  than  the  foreigner  does. 

"We  are  told  that  the  object  of  European  reforms 
is  to  insure  the  happiness  of  Macedonia,  in  answer 
to  which  we  assert  that  Europe,  in  spite  of  all  her 
efforts,  has  been  unable  to  attain  this  object  and 
never  will  attain  it.  .  .  .  The  intervention  has  been 
useless  for  Europeans,  injurious  to  the  Ottomans. 
The  Great  Powers  themselves  admit  the  failure  of 
the  measures  adopted  by  them;  and  yet  now,  Eu- 
rope, instead  of  honourably  withdrawing  from  this 
business,  is,  so  it  appears,  about  to  make  Macedonia 
the  arena  of  yet  further  experiments."  Then  the 
manifesto,  after  discussing  the  new  schemes  pro- 
posed by  the  British  and  Russian  Governments,  and 
showing  how  these,  if  carried  out,  would  destroy 
the  independence  of  an  integral  part  of  the  Ottoman 
Government,  declares  that  "We  Mussulmans  and 
Christians,  united  under  the  name  of  the  Ottoman 
Committee  of  Union  and  Progress,  not  influenced 
by  national  or  religious  fanaticism,  are  working 
together  to  deliver  our  country  from  foreign  inter- 
vention, and  to  obtain  our  personal  and  political 
liberty  from  the  existing  Government.  We  posi- 
tively assert  that  these  plans  of  England  and  Russia 
would  sever  Macedonia  from  the  Ottoman  Empire. 
We  therefore  cannot  accept  these  proposed  meas- 
121 


TURKEY 

ures,  which  would  lead  to  the  general  ruin  of  the 
Empire,  and  are  opposed  to  justice  and  civilization. 
We  are  determined  to  employ  all  means  to  obtain 
our  natural  rights."  The  manifesto  points  out  that 
the  purely  selfish  action  of  Bulgaria,  Greece,  and 
gervia,  which  for  purposes  of  annexation  sent  their 
bands  to  murder  and  ravage  in  Macedonia,  was  the 
chief  cause  of  the  existing  state  of  anarchy  in  the 
country;  and  it  has  a  slap  at  our  humanitarians, 
whose  sole  sympathy  was  with  the  Christians.  As 
the  first  public  declaration  of  the  Committee,  this  is 
an  exceedingly  interesting  document. 

I  need  scarcely  say  that  the  Committee  of  Union 
and  Progress  did  not  receive  a  reply  to  its  memo- 
randum from  any  of  the  Great  Powers.  Cabinets 
cannot  well  recognise  and  hold  communication  with 
a  revolutionary  organisation  whose  aim  it  is  to 
overthrow  the  Government  of  a  friendly  Power. 
Probably  some  of  those  to  whom  the  manifesto 
was  addressed  read  it  with  a  contemptuous  smile, 
little  dreaming  that  within  two  months  this  band 
of  unknown  men  would  make  itself  the  master  of 
an  Empire.  One  or  two  newspapers  published  brief 
summaries  of  the  manifesto  without  comment,  for 
the  world  did  not  take  the  Young  Turkey  party  seri- 
ously until  the  revolution  was  an  accomplished  fact. 
On  June  10  —  that  is,  a  week  or  so  after  the  Com- 
mittee had  issued  this  manifesto  —  King  Edward 
VII  met  the  Tsar  at  Reval  and  shortly  afterwards 
the  details  of  the  Anglo-Russian  scheme  for  the  paci- 
fication and  better  rule  of  Macedonia  were  communi- 
122 


HOW    THE    REVOLUTION    BEGAN 

cated  to  the  Powers.  This  forced  the  hands  of  the 
Committee;  it  was  reaUsed  that  the  blow  for  Otto- 
man Hberty  must  be  struck  soon,  or  it  would  be  too 
late;  but  that  which  precipitated  the  movement, 
driving  the  Macedonian  officers  into  an  immediate 
revolt  in  self-defence,  was  the  energetic  action  taken 
by  the  Palace  spies  at  about  this  time. 

In  the  beginning  of  1908  the  Palace  became 
alarmed  by  the  reports  that  came  from  the  Macedo- 
nian garrisons.  It  is  true  that  up  to  that  time  the 
discontent  of  the  troops  had  assumed  no  revolution- 
ary character,  and  at  the  meetings  which  they  held 
in  all  the  military  centres  the  men,  while  demanding 
their  rights  under  the  military  code,  their  arrears  of 
pay,  their  proper  rations,  and  so  forth,  uttered  no 
threats  against  the  Government;  but  the  discipline 
and  organisation  of  the  army  had  been  destroyed, 
and  a  number  of  the  reservists  in  Macedonia  went 
so  far  as  to  refuse  to  obey  the  call  for  service  in 
the  Hedjaz.  The  Palace  now  learnt  that  a  number 
of  young  officers  were  taking  advantage  of  this  dis- 
affection of  the  rank  and  file  to  spread  treasonable 
propaganda.  The  rapid  progress  of  the  Young  Tur- 
key movement,  and  the  wide  dissemination  of  its 
doctrines  through  the  towns  and  villages  by  trusted 
emissaries,  made  it  impossible  to  preserve  a  complete 
secrecy,  and  the  creatures  of  the  Palace,  though 
they  could  not  place  their  hands  upon  those  who 
directed  this  movement,  felt  that  they  were  in 
the  presence  of  a  great  danger,  all  the  more  ter- 
rible on  account  of  the  mystery  that  enveloped  it. 
123 


TURKEY 

So  they  laid  their  apprehensions  before  their  ever- 
fearful  master,  with  the  result  that  it  was  decided  to 
take  steps  to  effectually  stamp  out  the  conspiracy. 

Espionage  has  ever  been  the  favourite  weapon  of 
Abdul  Hamid;  so  spies  were  now  poured  into  Mace- 
donia to  worm  out  the  secrets  of  the  movement 
and  discover  the  leaders,  and  of  these  spies  many 
never  returned  to  tell  their  tale.  The  Sultan  also 
gave  orders  to  the  senior  officers  in  Macedonia  to 
find  out  all  they  could  about  the  movement,  to 
arrest  suspected  officers,  and  send  them  to  Constan- 
tinople, and  to  address  the  men  solemnly  concern- 
ing their  duties,  and  especially  impress  it  upon  them 
that  to  withdraw  their  fidelity  and  obedience  from 
the  Caliph,  "the  Shadow  of  God,"  "the  Commander 
of  the  Faithful,"  was  regarded  by  the  Moslem 
religion  as  the  most  heinous  of  sins.  In  March  a 
special  Commission,  under  Mahir  Pasha,  was  sent 
from  Constantinople  to  Salonica  to  institute  an 
inquisition,  but  despite  numerous  denunciations, 
perquisitions,  arrests,  and  tortures,  it  collected  little 
evidence,  and  entirely  failed  to  get  at  the  heart  of 
the  plot,  for  there  were  no  traitors  within  that  cir- 
cle of  devoted  men.  But  the  Commission  was  able 
to  report  to  the  Palace  that  there  undoubtedly 
existed  in  Macedonia  a  powerful  secret  society  dan- 
gerous to  the  regime,  and  that  the  Macedonian 
troops  could  not  be  relied  upon  to  support  the 
Government. 

The  work  of  the  Commission  alarmed  the  Com- 
mittee of  Union  and  Progress,  several  of  whose  most 
124 


HOW    THE    REVOLUTION    BEGAN 

useful  members  had  been  seized;  and  the  young  offi- 
cers in  the  army  who  had  been  affihated  reahsed  their 
danger,  and  came  to  the  conclusion  that  it  would  be 
expedient  to  start  the  insurrection  as  soon  as  possi- 
ble, before  further  arrests  had  seriously  weakened 
their  cause.  Thus  it  happened  that,  quite  a  year 
before  the  time  originally  contemplated  by  the  Com- 
mittee, Major  Niazi  Bey,  at  Resna,  on  July  3,  took 
the  momentous  step.  He  openly  disavowed  his  alle- 
giance to  his  sovereign,  fled  to  the  mountains  with 
a  band  of  Moslem  civilians  and  some  of  the  sol- 
diers under  his  command,  and  issued  his  rebel  mani- 
festo, in  which  he  called  upon  all  patriots  to  join 
in  destroying  the  Government.  I  will  tell  later  the 
story  of  the  doings  of  Niazi  Bey,  Enver  Bey,  and 
the  other  insurgent  leaders  in  the  mountains;  how 
officers  and  men  rallied  round  them;  how  they  per- 
suaded the  Bulgarian  bands  to  join  forces  with  them; 
how  at  last  the  entire  Macedonian  army  had  become 
the  army  of  the  Committee;  and  how,  within  three 
weeks  of  that  historic  event  —  the  raising  of  the 
banner  of  revolt  at  Resna  —  the  revolution  had 
triumphed  and  the  Despotism  was  a  thing  of  the 
past.  At  this  stage  I  will  describe  the  series  of 
events  that  precipitated  the  final  struggle  between 
the  Palace  and  the  Committee. 

In  view  of  the  increasing  activity  of  its  enemies, 
the  Committee,  at  its  secret  meetings,  condemned 
to  death  and  ordered  the  execution  of  such  instru- 
ments of  the  Palace  as  were  the  most  dangerous  to 
the  cause,  including  several  of  the  senior  officers  in 
125 


TURKEY 

the  Macedonian  army  and  all  those  who  were  found 
to  be  spies  or  informers.  Towards  the  end  it  must 
have  become  difficult  for  the  Palace  to  find  men 
willing  to  embark  on  so  dangerous  a  profession  as 
that  of  spy,  even  for  the  highest  pay.  Had  it  not 
been  for  these  assassinations  the  conspiracy  must 
have  failed;  at  the  cost  of  these  few  lives  Turkey  was 
saved;  and  a  terrible  persecution  of  her  best  sons  by 
the  vengeful  Palace  was  warded  off.  These  killings 
of  the  condemned  as  often  as  not  were  done  in  broad 
daylight,  in  a  busy  street,  by  officers  in  uniform,  and 
no  man  interfered  with  the  executioners. 

Thus,  on  July  7,  General  Shemshi  Pasha,  an  able 
soldier,  who,  as  possessing  considerable  experience  in 
suppressing  Macedonian  and  Albanian  risings,  had 
been  sent  to  crush  the  mutiny,  was  shot  dead  in  the 
streets  of  Monastir  in  broad  daylight  by  a  young 
officer.  Next,  the  officer  commanding  at  Seres  and 
certain  other  officers  who  upheld  the  cause  of  the 
Palace  were  killed.  On  July  10  the  imam,  or  chap- 
lain, of  the  artillery  regiment  in  Monastir,  who  had 
been  acting  as  a  spy  in  barracks,  was  shot  in  the 
streets  of  Salonica  while  he  was  on  his  way  to  the 
railway  station  to  carry  his  information  to  the  capi- 
tal. On  the  same  day,  and  also  in  Salonica,  an 
attempt  was  made  on  the  life  of  Haki  Bey,  a  Palace 
informant,  who  had  been  a  member  of  the  Commis- 
sion of  inquiry.  On  July  12,  General  Sadik  Pasha 
was  shot  while  on  a  Messagerie  steamer  bound  from 
Salonica  to  Constantinople.  The  Committee  was 
now  fighting,  so  to  speak,  with  the  halter  round  its 
126 


HOW    THE    REVOLUTION    BEGAN 

neck,  and  took  no  risks;  it  removed  those  whose 
action  might  bring  ruin  upon  the  cause  of  the  Young 
Turks,  for  the  chances  of  success  or  failure  were  still 
very  uncertain. 

The  Palace  realised  its  danger,  and  knew  —  what 
the  outer  world  did  not  know  —  that  this  was  no  or- 
dinary mutiny  of  discontented  troops.  The  Sultan's 
most  trusted  officers,  when  sent  to  crush  the  rising, 
could  not  get  their  men  to  fire  upon  their  insurgent 
fellow-Moslems,  and  were  sometimes  themselves 
assassinated  by  them.  For  the  first  time  in  history 
the  name  of  the  Padishah  had  failed  to  inspire  the 
pious  Ottoman  soldiery  with  reverence  and  obe- 
dience. The  Palace  was  now  thoroughly  alarmed, 
and  no  measure  was  omitted  that  could  help  to 
bring  about  the  destruction  of  the  Young  Turkey 
conspiracy.  It  was  decided,  among  other  things, 
that  another  effort  should  be  made  to  get  at  the 
very  heart  of  the  movement,  to  strangle  the  secret 
Central  Committee,  which,  as  the  spies  suspected, 
worked  in  Salonica;  for  if  the  ringleaders  and  the 
central  organisation  could  be  exterminated,  the 
movement  would  become  a  hfeless  thing  and  fall  to 
pieces. 

So  Colonel  Nazim  Bey,  an  A.D.C.  of  the  Sultan, 
one  of  the  most  detested  and  feared  of  the  instru- 
ments of  the  Despotism,  was  sent  to  Salonica  with 
a  body  of  spies  to  unearth  the  secret  Committee. 
Nazim  was  a  typical  creature  of  the  Palace.  Ex- 
travagant and  vicious,  ever  in  debt,  like  Catiline, 
prodigal  of  his  own  while  greedy  for  the  possessions 
127 


TURKEY 

of  others,  clever,  and  quite  unscrupulous,  he  was 
ready  to  sell  his  soul  for  the  moneys  of  which  he 
was  ever  in  need.  He  was  appointed  Commandant 
de  Place  in  Salonica.  Denunciations  were  well  paid 
for,  so  he  denounced  many  oflScers,  professional 
men,  and  students  on  the  flimsiest  evidence,  for  real 
evidence  was  not  easily  procurable.  On  one  day  he 
despatched  thirty-eight  young  officers  to  Constan- 
tinople, who  were  imprisoned  on  their  arrival.  But 
in  many  cases  those  whose  arrest  he  ordered  were 
immediately  set  free  or  escaped  with  the  assistance 
of  officials  in  the  police  and  other  departments, 
many  of  whom,  as  I  have  explained,  were  secret 
adherents  of  the  Committee.  Nazim,  who  knew 
well  what  found  favour  in  his  master's  eyes,  also 
sent  reports  to  the  Palace  regarding  the  conduct 
of  his  superiors  in  Salonica,  accusing  distinguished 
general  officers  of  the  head-quarters  staff  and  others 
of  carelessness,  partiality,  and  covert  sympathy  with 
the  Young  Turks,  with  the  result  that  he  was  given 
still  further  emoluments,  and  was  so  strongly  sup- 
ported by  the  Palace  that  he  was  enabled  to  arro- 
gate successfully  the  chief  authority  in  the  city. 
The  Committee  of  Union  and  Progress  condemned 
Nazim  to  death,  one  of  his  own  subordinates  sign- 
ing the  decree.  A  young  lieutenant  of  infantry 
offered  himself  as  the  executioner.  Nazim,  however, 
had  taken  fright,  and  on  July  11  he  fled  from  Salo- 
nica. As  he  was  driving  to  the  station  in  his  car- 
riage he  was  shot  at,  but  was  only  slightly  wounded; 
so  he  was  able  to  reach  Constantinople  and  report 
128 


HOW    THE    REVOLUTION    BEGAN 

to  the  Sultan  the  information  which  he  had  col- 
lected concerning  the  revolutionary  movement. 

As  the  result  of  Nazim  Bey's  alarming  report, 
another  Commission  of  inquiry  was  sent  from  Con- 
stantinople to  Salonica.  It  was  under  the  presi- 
dency of  Ismail  Mahir  Pasha,  General  of  Division  and 
A.D.C.  to  the  Sultan  —  who,  it  having  been  discov- 
ered by  the  Committee  that  he  was  the  leader  of  a 
reactionary  plot,  was  shot  dead  in  the  streets  of 
Stamboul  by  an  officer  in  December  last — and  it  con- 
tained, among  other  notable  men,  Youssouf  Pasha, 
Rejet  Pasha,  and  Sadik  Pasha.  The  ostensible  object 
of  the  Commission  was  to  inspect  arsenals  and 
military  stores;  but  this  the  Commissioners  never 
attempted  to  do.  They  took  up  their  abode  in  the 
principal  hotel  in  Salonica.  A  friend  of  mine,  now 
editor  of  one  of  Turkey's  principal  papers,  who  was 
told  off  by  the  Committee  to  live  in  the  hotel  and 
keep  the  Commissioners  under  observation,  found 
that  they  rarely  ventured  out  of  doors,  but  sent 
for  and  proceeded  to  examine  closely  all  manner  of 
men. 

The  contre  espionage  conducted  against  them  by 
the  Committee  to  a  large  extent  baffled  their  de- 
signs; even  the  people  employed  by  the  Commission 
to  gather  incriminating  information  were  as  often 
as  not  initiates  of  the  secret  Society.  But  though 
the  Commission  could  not  get  at  the  heart  of  the 
conspiracy  it  displayed  great  activity,  and  the  de- 
nunciations to  the  Palace  were  numerous;  for,  as 
with  the  other  spy  commissions,  proofs  of  com- 
129 


TURKEY 

plicity  in  the  plot  were  not  necessary  to  condemna- 
tion, and  to  be  known  as  an  honest  and  patriotic 
Ottoman  subject  was  sufficient  ground  for  accusa- 
tion. The  Commission  also  had  its  branches  in  the 
interior  of  Macedonia.  In  Monastir,  Persepe,  and 
other  garrison  towns  certain  oflficers  became  its 
agents;  but  most  of  these  were  discovered  by  the 
Committee  and  had  to  flee,  and  some,  including 
Sami  Bey,  Commissioner  of  Police  in  Monastir,  were 
destroyed  by  the  executioners  of  the  Committee. 

So  thoroughly  had  all  the  machinery  of  official 
authority  been  destroyed  in  Macedonia  that  it  was 
diflficult  for  the  Commissioners  to  secure  the  arrests 
of  those  who  had  been  denounced,  therefore  treach- 
erous methods  were  now  employed  to  get  the  ring- 
leaders within  the  clutches  of  the  Palace.  The 
Sultan  believed  that  every  man  had  his  price,  and 
on  previous  occasions  he  had  found  bribery  succeed 
where  terrorism  failed.  The  most  flattering  letters 
were  sent  to  Enver  Bey  and  other  young  staff-officers 
who  had  been  forwarding  the  revolutionary  cause  in 
the  interior  of  Macedonia  w^ith  such  marked  success; 
they  were  invited  to  the  Palace  and  were  promised 
not  only  forgiveness  but  large  pecuniary  rewards  and 
promotion  to  general  rank.  Many  a  good  man  from 
the  time  of  Midhat  Pasha  had  been  tempted  by  the 
Palace  to  come  out  from  some  secure  sanctuary  to 
his  destruction  by  such  wiles  as  these.  So  Enver 
Bey  and  his  comrades  ignored  this  invitation,  but  at 
the  same  time,  realising  the  danger  of  non-compliance, 
they  fled  to  the  mountains,  organised  bands,  and  as 
130 


HOW     THE     REVOLUTION     BEGAN 

open  insurgents  precipitated  the  doom  of  the  Despot- 
ism. At  the  same  time  other  methods  of  concilia- 
tion were  attempted  by  the  Palace.  A  large  sum  of 
hastily  borrowed  money  was  sent  to  Salonica  to  dis- 
charge the  arrears  of  pay  due  to  the  troops,  and  the 
authorities  in  Constantinople  refrained  from  doing 
any  injury  to  the  thirty -eight  young  officers  of  the 
Macedonian  army  who  had  been  imprisoned  at  the 
Ministry  of  War.  To  anticipate  a  little,  these  offi- 
cers were  pardoned  and  released  on  July  21  as  the 
result  of  the  Committee's  threat  to  kill  all  the  gen- 
eral officers  in  Macedonia  unless  this  was  done. 

Ismail  Pasha  and  his  fellow-Commissioners  re- 
turned to  Constantinople,  their  efforts  having  had 
the  effect  of  spreading  the  growth  which  they  had 
been  sent  to  root  up.  The  Palace,  which  through- 
out this  crisis  exemplified  the  truth  that  whom  the 
gods  wish  to  destroy  they  first  make  demented,  for 
it  took  every  precaution  too  late  and  displayed  a 
vacillation  that  ruined  what  chances  it  had,  now 
decided  to  do  what,  if  it  had  been  done  some  months 
earlier,  might  have  crushed  the  Young  Turk  move- 
ment and  left  Abdul  Ha  mid  the  undisputed  master 
of  the  Ottoman  Empire.  It  was  decided  to  de- 
spatch a  large  army  from  Asia  to  overpower  the 
mutinous  troops  in  Europe,  and  orders  were  given 
that  no  less  than  forty -eight  battalions  of  Anatolian 
troops  should  be  landed  forthwith  at  Salonica.  But 
before  describing  the  failure  of  this  last  move  on  the 
part  of  the  Despotism  it  will  be  necessary  to  go 
back  a  little  to  give  an  account  of  what  had  been 
131 


TURKEY 


happening  in  the  interior  of  Macedonia  since  Niazi 
Bey  had  raised  the  standard  of  revolt  at  Resna  on 
July  3,  and  of  how  everything  was  there  being 
made  ready  for  the  general  insurrection. 


132 


CHAPTER  X 

THE   STANDARD    OF   REVOLT 

THE  situation  in  Macedonia  in  July,  1908,  when 
Niazi  Bey  took  to  the  mountains,  may  be 
summed  up  thus:  The  Bulgarian,  Greek, 
Servian,  Wallach,  and  Albanian  bands  were  mur- 
dering, robbing,  outraging  each  other's  kin  all  over 
the  country;  the  Committee  of  Union  and  Progress, 
having  established  its  branches  in  Monastir,  Och- 
rida,  Resna,  Persepe,  and  other  places,  was  engaged 
in  steadily  spreading  its  propaganda  through  all  the 
countryside,  a  large  proportion  of  the  young  officers 
of  the  Macedonian  army  being  initiates  or  sympa- 
thisers with  the  cause;  and,  lastly,  the  Palace  had 
taken  its  precautions,  and  there  was  not  a  town  or 
regiment  without  its  secret  Government  agents  fer- 
reting out  the  secrets  of  the  conspiracy  and  denoun- 
cing the  suspects. 

Niazi  Bey,  the  young  officer  who  was  the  first  to 
raise  the  standard  of  revolt,  was  a  good  example  of 
the  men  who  were  forthcoming  in  numbers  at  this 
period  of  Turkey's  great  danger,  men  who  proved 
to  the  world  the  stubborn  virtues  of  the  old  Otto- 
man stock,  intensely  patriotic,  brooding  over  the 
sorrows  of  their  country,  seeking  a  plan  for  her 
133 


TURKEY 

deliverance,  and,  that  plan  once  found,  devoting 
themselves,  with  the  passionate  zeal  of  men  obsessed 
by  a  fixed  idea,  to  the  carrying  out  of  their  high 
aim.  They  were  not  self-seeking;  if  they  cherished 
ambition,  it  was  for  the  martyr's  death;  they  were 
prepared  to  sacrifice  their  careers,  their  wives  and 
families,  and  their  property  for  the  cause,  and,  as  we 
shall  see,  when  Niazi  set  out  with  his  little  band  of 
followers  on  that  wonderful  forlorn  hope  of  his,  each 
took  an  oath  not  to  return  to  his  wife  and  family 
until  Turkey  was  freed;  before  going  they  bade  last 
farewells  to  those  they  loved;  for  them  it  was  to 
be  victory  or  death.  With  a  Mussulman  Turk,  love 
of  country  is  a  part  of  his  religion,  and  his  single- 
minded  devotion  has  the  strength  of  fanaticism. 
When  in  an  oppressed  country  there  is  a  sufiiciency 
of  men  of  this  stamp,  the  days  of  the  tyranny  are 
numbered. 

This  spirit  breathes  through  the  published  letters 
and  diary  of  Niazi  Bey,  wherein,  telling  us  a  good 
deal  in  very  frank  fashion  about  his  thoughts,  as- 
pirations, and  emotions,  he  provides  us  with  a  most 
interesting  human  document.  That  he  thus  writes 
so  freely  and  often  with  poetical  diction  concerning 
his  sentiments  will  surprise  Englishmen,  who  have 
always  heard  that  reserve  is  one  of  the  character- 
istics of  the  Turk.  The  Turk  is  reserved  in  his 
relations  with  the  Western  European,  who  so  little 
understands  him.  But  the  Turk,  as  all  his  literature 
proves,  is  sentimental  and  emotional  with  the  senti- 
ment and  emotion  that  are  the  sources  of  strength 
134 


THE    STANDARD    OF    REVOLT 

and  not  of  weakness.  The  Turk  reveals  his  heart  to 
his  friend  with  a  truthful  simplicity  that  would  seem 
lack  of  proper  reticence  to  Englishmen,  many  of 
whom  appear  to  be  ashamed  to  let  it  be  supposed 
that  they  have  any  affection  for  their  wives  or 
parents;  but  we  ourselves,  as  the  memoirs  of  the  time 
show,  did  not  take  so  much  care  to  hide  our  emotions 
when  Nelson  was  gaining  victories  on  the  seas.  So 
Niazi,  having  no  false  shame,  makes  no  secret  of  his 
brave  deeds,  his  musings,  and  his  affections,  and  one 
hkes  him  the  better  for  it.  But  Niazi,  though  de- 
voted to  high  ideals,  was  no  dreamer  or  unpractical 
and  rash  revolutionary.  Like  most  of  his  country- 
men he  was  endowed  with  plenty  of  cool  common 
sense,  and  displayed  the  shrewdness  and  cunning  of 
the  Homeric  Odysseus  in  the  carrying  through  of 
his  audacious  adventure. 

Niazi  Bey  is  himself  an  Albanian,  his  family  be- 
longing to  the  Mussulman  land-owning  class.  He 
was  born  in  Resna,  a  little  town  between  Monastir 
and  Ochrida,  in  a  region  where  fertile  valleys  studded 
with  orchards  and  cornfields,  grassy  downs,  forest- 
clad  mountains,  craggy  Balkan  peaks  and  gorges, 
and  broad  lakes  combine  to  make  as  beautiful  a 
scenery  as  can  be  found  in  Europe.  Niazi  had  known 
this  countryside  from  his  childhood,  and  he  had 
friends  in  all  the  villages,  so  when  it  was  decided 
to  make  this  the  scene  of  the  first  outbreak  of  the 
insurrection  it  was  recognised  that  he  was  the  right 
man  to  come  forward  as  leader.  Niazi  entered  the 
army  as  a  very  young  man  and  greatly  distinguished 
135 


TURKEY 

himself  in  the  Greek  war.  Then  he  was  sent  to  his 
own  country,  and  for  the  five  years  preceding  the 
revolution  he  was  employed  with  his  battalion  of 
chasseurs  in  pursuing  the  various  brigand  bands  in 
the  mountains.  Again  he  gained  distinction,  tem- 
porarily crushed  the  power  of  the  Bulgarian  insur- 
rectionary Committee  in  the  Resna  district,  and 
became  very  popular  with  the  Moslem  section  of 
the  population,  whose  property  and  lives  he  zeal- 
ously set  himself  to  protect.  The  Committee  of 
Union  and  Progress,  exercising  its  powerful  under- 
ground influence,  obtained  for  him  promotion  to  the 
rank  of  Major  and  his  appointment  to  head-quarters 
at  Resna,  the  place  in  which  he  could  serve  the 
cause  best.  For  Niazi  had  been  initiated  into  the 
secret  Society  by  his  brother  oflBcer,  the  now  famous 
Enver  Bey,  and  throughout  his  operations  against 
the  bands  was  acting  as  the  instrument  of  the  Com- 
mittee rather  than  that  of  the  despotic  Government. 
The  story  of  Niazi's  work  at  this  time  throws  an 
interesting  light  on  the  condition  of  Macedonia. 
When  he  was  moved  to  Resna,  Bulgarian  and  Alba- 
nian bands,  acting  in  conjunction,  were  terrorising 
that  district.  It  was  his  duty  to  seize  the  leaders 
of  the  non-Moslem  bands  and  to  scatter  the  bands 
themselves.  He  was  successful  in  doing  this,  though 
his  methods  were  not  cruel  or  vindictive;  for,  as  he 
tells  us,  he  was  sorry  to  be  hunting  down  these  men 
who,  after  all,  were  fighting  against  a  despotism 
which  was  as  detestable  to  himself  as  it  was  to 
them.  So  he  used  to  call  together  the  Christian 
136 


THE    STANDARD    OF    REVOLT 

notables,  who  had  known  him  from  his  childhood 
and  trusted  him,  and  point  out  to  them  that  their 
separatist  dreams  could  never  be  realised,  that  it 
was  better  for  them  to  repudiate  those  bringers  of 
bloodshed,  the  agitators  in  Athens,  Sophia,  and 
Belgrade,  and  join  in  union  and  brotherhood  with 
their  Moslem  fellow-countrymen,  whose  grievances 
against  the  Government  were  as  heavy  as  their 
own.  His  words,  recognised  as  sincere,  produced  a 
good  effect. 

At  Niazi's  advice  some  Moslem  inhabitants  of 
the  district  formed  themselves  into  a  band  which 
was  under  the  direction  of  the  Committee  of  Union 
and  Progress.  This  band  used  to  go  about  the  coun- 
try, protecting  the  villagers  without  any  distinction 
of  race  or  creed.  Thus  at  one  time  it  would  be  de- 
fending a  village  of  Bulgarians  against  the  attack 
of  a  Serb  band,  and  at  another  time  a  Serb  village 
against  a  Bulgarian  band.  This  band  was  well  dis- 
ciphned,  committed  no  excesses  of  any  kind,  and 
did  not  even  requisition  the  necessaries  of  life  in  the 
villages;  conduct  so  extraordinarily  Quixotic  for  a 
Macedonian  band  that  it  gained  for  the  Committee 
the  good  opinion  of  the  Albanians,  who  began  to 
come  in  numbers  to  Ochrida  and  Monastir  to  take 
the  oath  of  allegiance  to  the  revolutionary  leaders. 

But  so  fast  as  the  labours  of  Niazi  and  the  Com- 
mittee helped  on  the  pacification  of  the  country,  so 
fast  did  the  evil  policy  of  the  Government,  alternat- 
ing between  encouragement  of  lawlessness  and  cruel 
repression,  undo  all  the  good  that  had  been  effected. 
137 


TURKEY 

The  corrupt  tribunals  could  be  bought.     Thus,  after 
the  troops  under  Niazi  had  brought  in  some  hundreds 
of  people  who  had  been  found  in  the  possession  of 
bombs  and  arms,  their  trial  resulted  in  the  condem- 
nation of  twenty  poor  peasants  and  the  acquittal  of 
all  the  really  dangerous  rebels  who  happened  to  be 
rich  townsmen,  a  miscarriage  of  justice  which  held 
Niazi  and  his  brother  officers  up  to  ridicule  and  of 
course  encouraged  the  Christian  bands  to  redouble 
their  mischievous  activity.     On  the  other  hand,  the 
Government  sent  to  Persepe,  to  put  down  the  insur- 
gents, an  officer  of  passionate  temper  who  did  not 
know  the  customs  or  languages  of  the  people,  and 
was  unable  to  gain  their  confidence.     He  tortured 
and  beat  the  peasantry  and  behaved  with  such  in- 
humanity that  the  foreign  Powers  made  representa- 
tions to  the  Porte  on  the  subject.     Thus  dictated 
to,   the   Government   arrested   and   sent   away  this 
officer,   again   with   the   result   that   the   Bulgarian 
bands  were  encouraged  in  their  brigandage,  as  was 
always  the  case  when  foreign  intervention  humili- 
ated   Turkey.     At    this  time,   too,   the   Committee 
found  an  enemy  in  the  Russian  Consul  for  this  dis- 
trict.    He  exerted  his  influence  to  procure  the  with- 
drawal of  Niazi  Bey  from  the  scene  of  his  successful 
labours.     So  Niazi  was  summoned  to  Salonica  and 
was  rebuked  by  the  General  in  command,  but  he 
was  not  impeached  and,  fortunately  for  his  country, 
he  was  allowed  to  return  to  his  post  at  Resna.    The 
Government  of  Russia  was  then  arranging  with  that 
of  England  its  joint  intervention  in  Macedonia,  and 
138 


THE    STANDARD    OF    REVOLT 

any  improvement  in  the  state  of  affairs  of  that 
region  that  might  render  such  intervention  unnec- 
essary would  no  doubt  have  been  regarded  as  a 
calamity  by  Russian  statesmen. 

At  about  this  time  Kermanle  Metre,  once  a  leader 
of  a  rebel  band,  who  had  been  pardoned  and  had 
since  done  signal  service  as  a  Government  officer, 
was  tried  and  condemned  to  death  unjustly,  as  the 
result  of  Russian  intrigue.  This  cowardly  betrayal 
of  a  valued  servant  by  the  Government  aroused 
profound  indignation  throughout  the  Macedonian 
army,  and  was  one  of  the  most  important  of  the 
factors  that  combined  to  effect  the  moral  union 
between,  not  only  the  army,  but  also  the  Moslem 
civil  population,  with  the  Committee  of  Union  and 
Progress ;  for  the  incident  was  a  proof  to  the  Mussul- 
mans that  the  Government  was  an  immoral  one, 
"acting  in  defiance  of  the  Sacred  Law,  the  Moslem 
Religion,  and  Ottoman  ideals."  Niazi  Bey  himself 
received  orders  to  take  Kermanle  Metre  to  Monas- 
tir,  and  he  determined  to  save  his  prisoner's  life  at 
the  risk  of  his  own.  So,  after  arresting  him,  he 
connived  at  his  flight,  and  the  agents  of  the  Com- 
mittee restored  the  man  to  his  home.  This  escape 
of  their  compatriot  from  the  gallows  with  the  assist- 
ance of  the  Committee  of  Union  and  Progress  pro- 
duced a  great  effect  upon  the  Bulgarian  peasants  in 
the  district,  who  said  to  themselves  that  a  power 
that  administered  justice  had  at  last  risen  in  the 
land;  and  from  this  time  the  Bulgarian  revolution- 
aries used  to  listen  with  an  increasing  respect  and 
139 


TURKEY 

sympathy  to  Niazi  when  he  argued  that  Mussul- 
mans and  Christians,  being  all  brothers  of  one 
fatherland,  should  work  in  union  to  obtain  a  Gov- 
ernment that  would  assure  justice  and  equality  for 
all. 

While  Bulgarians,  Greeks,  and  Serbs  in  Macedo- 
nia by  noise  and  violence  had  been  urging  their 
racial  claims  in  anticipation  of  the  break-up  of  the 
Turkish  Empire,  the  Moslem  Turks  under  the  direc- 
tion of  the  Committee  of  Union  and  Progress  had 
been  steadily  and  patiently  working  for  the  libera- 
tion of  their  country,  employing  methods  so  secret 
that  the  outer  world  knew  nothing  of  the  movement 
and  was  deceived  into  thinking  that  the  Mussul- 
man backbone  of  the  population  was  regarding  the 
progress  of  events  with  indifference.  The  European 
Powers  had  ignored  the  memorandum  in  which  the 
Committee  had  protested  against  the  intervention 
of  England  and  Russia  in  Macedonia,  and  patriots 
recognised  that  the  time  had  arrived  to  come  out 
in  the  open  and  strike  the  blow  for  freedom  before 
that  intervention  and  the  increasing  activity  of  the 
Palace  spies  had  made  it  too  late  to  act  with  any 
chance  of  success.  Towards  the  end  of  June  it  was 
realised  that  it  needed  but  a  spark  to  start  a  gen- 
eral rising,  and  it  was  decided  that  certain  young  offi- 
cers, who  were  members  of  the  Committee,  should 
abandon  the  Government  service,  form  bands  in 
various  places,  take  to  the  mountains  and  organise 
the  insurrection  of  the  united  Mussulman  and  Chris- 
tian populations. 

140 


THE    STANDARD    OF    REVOLT 

Niazi  Bey  apparently  was  the  first  to  conceive 
this  idea.  He  had  become  the  zealot  whose  mind 
is  occupied  by  but  one  thought;  he  tells  us  that  he 
did  not  sleep  for  three  nights  after  learning  the 
result  of  the  Reval  meeting.  He  formed  his  plan. 
The  population  of  the  Resna  district  was  largely 
Moslem,  and  in  both  town  and  country  the  organ- 
isation of  the  Committee  of  Union  and  Progress 
was  practically  complete.  In  that  mountainous  and 
wooded  region  a  Moslem  band,  helped  by  a  sym- 
pathetic peasantry,  could,  if  necessary,  hold  the 
Government  troops  for  months  and  years.  So  he 
broached  the  matter  to  his  friend  Jemal  Bey,  presi- 
dent of  the  municipality  of  Resna;  Tahir  Effendi, 
the  Police  Commissioner;  and  other  of  the  brethren; 
and  it  was  arranged  to  hold  a  secret  meeting  of  the 
adherents  of  the  Committee  in  the  house  of  one 
Haji  Agha,  on  the  evening  of  June  28. 

About  fifty  men  were  present  at  this  meeting. 
The  following  is  a  summary  of  the  report  of  the 
proceedings  as  published  by  the  Committee.  Niazi 
Bey,  after  the  usual  salutations,  thus  addressed  the 
brethren:  "Fellow-countrymen  and  comrades.  You 
have  sworn  by  the  Unity  of  God  to  obey  the  com- 
mands of  the  Committee,  and  to  save  the  country, 
which  is  being  destroyed  by  traitors,  by  working 
together  in  concord  and  giving  your  lives  and  prop- 
erty freely.  Is  it  not  so?"  All  cried,  "Evetl  evet!'' 
(Yes!  yes!).  *'The  time  has  come,"  continued  Niazi, 
"  to  redeem  that  sacred  vow.  The  country  now  needs 
our  devotion.  Our  vile  Government  is  regarding 
141 


TURKEY 

with  indifference  the  compact  which  has  been  agreed 
upon  at  Reval  between  the  Tsar  of  Russia  and  the 
King  of  England,  which  aims  at  the  division  of  our 
fatherland  and  the  delivery  of  it  into  the  hands  of 
our  enemies.  The  cruel  scheming  of  Europe  can 
only  be  frustrated  by  the  blood  of  the  nation.  It  is 
the  decision  of  the  Committee  that  we  should  rise 
as  a  nation  against  the  vile  Turkish  Government 
which  is  bowing  its  head  before  this  humiliating 
compact.  It  was  at  Resna  that  the  Bulgarians  first 
revolted,  and  brought  this  calamity  upon  us.  So, 
therefore,  at  Resna  shall  our  first  standard  of  revolt 
be  raised  —  a  general  revolt,  without  distinction  of 
creed  or  race,  against  the  despotic  Government.  I 
have  prepared  everything.  I  can  provide  all  that  is 
needed  to  equip  a  band  of  two  hundred  men  — 
money,  arms,  ammunition,  cartridge-belts,  sandals. 
I  only  need  enthusiastic  and  devoted  men;  but  I 
want  in  them  a  devotion  that  will  sacrifice  family, 
the  comforts  and  sweets  of  life,  all  worldly  rela- 
tions, and  the  love  of  the  world,  for  the  salvation 
of  the  country.  If  the  salvation  of  the  fatherland 
cannot  be  gained,  then  those  who  follow  me  must 
look  upon  death  with  affection  as  the  greatest  boon. 
I  ask  your  forgiveness  for  reminding  you  of  what 
high-minded  self-sacrifice  is  demanded  of  those  who 
will  advance  in  the  van  of  the  forces  of  liberty;  for, 
knowing  you  as  I  do,  I  do  not  imagine  that  there 
is  one  among  you  who  will  shirk  his  duty.  I  will 
explain  to  you  our  purpose.  You  know  that  the 
intervention  of  Europe  in  our  internal  affairs  was 
142 


THE    STANDARD    OF    REVOLT 

brought  about  by  the  complaints  of  the  Christians, 
who  suffered  less  than  did  we  Moslems  under  the 
Despotism,  and  that  the  Government  has  opened  a 
road  for  this  intervention  by  its  despicableness  and 
cowardice,  making  Turkey  a  by-word  among  the 
nations  for  all  that  is  bad.  Now,  in  this  revolution 
we  have  to  make  manifest  to  the  w^orld  in  a  practi- 
cal fashion  that  we  love  the  Christians,  as  being  our 
brethren  under  the  same  fatherland,  that  we  hold 
them  equal  to  ourselves,  that  we  recognise  the  secu- 
rity of  their  honour  as  our  honour,  of  their  lives  as 
our  lives,  of  their  property  as  our  property.  This 
revolt  is  not  against  individuals,  but  against  the  sys- 
tem of  government,  which  has  not  only  stirred  up 
strife  between  the  different  creeds  and  races,  but  has 
also  made  us  Moslems  the  enemies  of  each  other. 
This  is  a  revolt  in  the  name  of  liberty,  equality, 
and  brotherhood.  To  bring  justice  to  the  people  we 
will  traverse  the  mountains  until  we  have  sacrificed 
our  lives.  I  am  sending  to  Monastir  my  wife  (Niazi 
had  been  married  but  nine  months  and  was  very 
attached  to  his  wife),  and  my  sister  with  her  father- 
less children,  for  they  have  none  but  me  to  take  care 
of  them;  and  there  my  relatives  will  protect  them. 
I  will  bid  an  everlasting  farewell  to  these  dear  ones, 
and  I  will  shut  up  my  house.  Are  there  any  among 
you  who  will  follow  me  heart  and  soul?" 

Then   all   those  present  with   one   voice   replied: 

"We  look  to  dying  with  you  in  honour  and  felicity. 

We  are  all  ready."     The  following  Friday  was  fixed 

upon  as  the  date  of  the  rising  of  the  people  of  Resna, 

143 


TURKEY 

and  it  was  agreed  that  on  that  day,  at  the  hour  of 
morning  prayer,  the  band  of  two  hundred  patriots 
should  assemble  near  the  barracks.  Jemal  Effendi 
was  sent  to  Monastir  to  apprise  the  central  Com- 
mittee in  that  town  of  Niazi's  plan  and  to  obtain 
permission  to  carry  it  out.  Then  the  brethren, 
having  embraced  one  another,  with  tears  of  joy  and 
pride  in  their  eyes,  broke  up  the  meeting,  depart- 
ing in  twos  and  threes  so  as  not  to  attract  the 
notice  of  the  spies. 

Within  two  days  Jemal  returned  from  Monastir 
with  the  required  permission  from  the  central  Com- 
mittee, and  Niazi  made  all  preparations  for  the 
fateful  Friday.  As  he  was  thus  engaged,  an  incident 
occurred  which,  in  his  opinion,  to  no  small  extent 
favoured  the  fortunes  of  his  adventure.  There  came 
to  appeal  to  him,  with  lamentations  and  tears,  the 
sister  of  the  famous  Bulgarian  revolutionary  leader, 
Christe.  A  Servian  band,  which  had  recently  killed 
a  member  of  her  family,  had  now  carried  off  into 
the  mountains  the  child  of  this  poor  woman,  and 
demanded  impossible  ransom.  Niazi  swore  to  the 
woman  that  he  would  rescue  the  child  for  her,  and 
he  decided  to  take  into  the  mountains  with  him 
the  Servian  schoolmaster  of  Resna  as  a  hostage. 
Niazi's  success  in  recovering  the  child  shortly  after- 
wards went  a  long  way  towards  gaining  the  confi- 
dence of  the  Bulgarians  and  convincing  them  of  the 
good  intentions  of  those  who  served  the  Committee 
of  Union  and  Progress. 

The  night  that  preceded  the  going  forth  of  the 
144 


THE    STANDARD    OF    REVOLT 

band  was  spent  by  Niazi  in  writing  various  mani- 
festos and  letters,  which  it  was  his  purpose  to  send 
out  when  he  was  clear  of  the  town  and  out  of  the 
power  of  the  agents  of  the  Government.  In  a  mani- 
festo which  he  addressed  to  the  Chief  Secretary  of 
the  Imperial  Palace;  to  Hilmi  Pasha,  the  Inspector- 
General  at  Salonica  (the  present  Grand  Vizier) ;  and 
to  the  Vali  of  Monastir,  he  explained  that  the  Com- 
mittee of  Union  and  Progress  represented  the  whole 
nation  and  was  very  powerful;  that  its  aim  was  to 
obtain  a  just  form  of  government,  like  that  in  civ- 
ilised countries,  and  to  preserve  the  integrity  of  the 
Empire.  He  stated  that,  in  view  of  the  number  of 
spies  who  had  been  sent  by  the  Government  to 
Salonica  to  destroy  those  who  were  silently  work- 
ing for  their  country's  good,  the  Committee  had 
taken  measures  to  protect  the  patriots ;  that  on  that 
day  two  hundred  fedais  (devoted  ones),  armed  with 
Mauser  rifles,  under  three  officers,  were  marching 
from  Resna;  that  elsewhere  other  bands  were  being 
formed,  representing  all  the  elements  of  the  popula- 
tion, and  that  these  bands  would  inflict  punishment 
on  the  traitorous  spies  who  disgraced  the  army  to 
which  they  belonged.  The  Committee  demanded 
that  the  spying  Pashas  and  their  assistants  should 
be  at  once  sent  back  to  Constantinople  by  special 
train.  It  also  demanded  that  the  Fundamental  Law 
(the  Constitution)  should  be  restored  immediately 
and  that  the  Chamber  of  Deputies  should  assemble 
as  soon  as  it  was  possible.  If  the  Government  refused 
to  grant  these  requests,  then  the  nation  would  obtain 
145 


TURKEY 

by  force  what  it  required,  and  the  responsibility  for 
the  bloodshed  would  rest  with  the  high  dignitaries 
of  the  State. 

Then  he  wrote  letters  to  the  commander  of  the 
regiment  of  gendarmes  at  Monastir,  to  the  lieutenant 
of  gendarmerie  at  Resna,  and  to  certain  other  officers 
who  had  sold  themselves  to  the  Palace,  and  solemnly 
warned  them,  in  the  name  of  the  two  hundred  fedais 
of  the  Committee  of  Union  and  Progress,  that  if  they 
continued  to  disgrace  their  military  uniform  by  acting 
as  spies  over  their  comrades,  and  by  showing  them- 
selves the  sycophants  of  the  Government  and  the 
foreign  officers,  thereby  betraying  their  fatherland 
which  was  agonising  "like  a  sorely  wounded  lion;" 
and  that  if  they  did  not  at  once  reform  their  conduct 
and  cease  to  be  the  active  enemies  of  the  National 
Union,  death  would  be  the  punishment  awarded  to 
them  by  the  Committee.  Men  had  already  discov- 
ered that  the  Committee  never  uttered  idle  threats, 
and  the  recipient  of  one  of  these  letters  was  so  terri- 
fied that  he  became  insane. 

The  momentous  day  (July  3,  1908)  dawned,  and 
Niazi  Bey  was  up  betimes  to  complete  his  prepara- 
tions. For  his  band  to  march  out  of  Resna  while 
the  oflScers,  who  were  not  adherents  of  the  cause, 
and  the  considerable  garrison  remained  in  it  was,  of 
course,  out  of  the  question,  so  he  employed  a  ruse 
to  empty  the  town  of  those  who  might  oppose  him. 
By  pre-arrangement  some  members  of  the  Committee 
came  into  Resna  and  reported  that  a  Bulgarian  band 
was  moving  up  the  road  near  Ismilova,  that  is,  in  a 
146 


THE    STANDARD    OF    REVOLT 

direction  contrary  to  the  one  in  which  he  intended 
to  lead  his  own  followers;  and  some  rifles  were  fired 
in  the  hills  to  support  the  story.  Thanks  to  this 
scheme,  all  the  available  troops  were  hurried  off  to 
attack  this  imaginary  band,  leaving  but  a  few  offi- 
cers and  men  to  guard  the  barracks,  which  are  sit- 
uated on  a  height  overlooking  the  town  and  about 
a  mile  and  a  half  distant  from  it. 

Niazi  then  walked  to  the  barracks  in  his  uniform, 
while  the  members  of  his  band  in  twos  and  threes 
collected  in  the  neighbourhood.  He  passed  through 
the  gates  of  the  barracks  just  after  the  Moslem 
officials  and  inhabitants  of  Resna  had  entered  the 
mosques  for  the  Friday  midday  prayer;  he  made 
the  appointed  signal  with  his  sword,  and  his  fedais, 
to  the  number  of  one  hundred  and  fifty,  poured  into 
the  barracks,  arousing  no  suspicion  among  the  sol- 
diers on  guard,  who  were  led  to  understand  that 
Major  Niazi  Bey  was  arming  a  party  of  Moslem 
civilians  with  the  object  of  proceeding  to  the  scene 
of  action  to  co-operate  with  the  troops. 

Following  Niazi  Bey's  instructions,  the  fedais 
broke  open  the  rifle  and  ammunition  cases  and 
armed  themselves,  many  of  the  men  taking  two 
rifles  each,  so  that  those  who  joined  the  band  later 
on  might  be  provided  with  weapons.  Niazi  also 
opened  the  military  chest  and  took  all  the  money 
that  was  in  it,  amounting  to  about  £500,  making 
out  a  receipt  for  it  in  which  he  explained  for  what 
purpose  he  was  about  to  use  it.  Then  the  band,  in 
perfect  order  and  full  of  enthusiasm,  marched  out  of 
147 


TURKEY 

the  barracks,  and  with  it  went  nine  private  soldiers 
who,  being  still  under  the  impression  that  Niazi  was 
leading  a  detachment  against  the  Bulgarians,  had 
volunteered  their  services.  After  marching  for  two 
hours  they  came  to  cross-roads  on  the  summit  of  a 
grassy  down,  where  Niazi's  band  was  joined,  as  had 
been  arranged,  by  Lieutenant  Osman  Effendi  and 
his  detachment  of  fedais  from  Persepe,  consisting  of 
a  lieutenant,  four  soldiers,  and  thirty  civilians.  , 

Here  a  halt  was  called  for  rest  and  food,  and 
before  the  march  was  resumed  Niazi  called  the 
men  around  him  and  addressed  them,  explaining 
his  aims  and  the  strict  rules  of  discipline  which 
the  Committee  had  enjoined  him  to  enforce.  He 
reminded  them  that  they  had  sworn  upon  the 
Unity  of  God  to  devote  their  lives  to  the  salvation 
of  their  fatherland.  "The  nation  expects  you,"  he 
said,  "to  set  a  brilliant  example  of  self-sacrifice 
and  Ottoman  chivalry  worthy  to  be  imitated.  Are 
you  prepared  never  to  see  your  homes  again  until 
the  salvation  of  the  country  has  been  secured,  and 
willingly  to  die  for  her.'^"  His  followers  cried  out, 
"Yes,  yes;  it  shall  be  death  or  salvation."  Then 
Niazi  proceeded,  "There  may  be  some  among  you 
who  have  not  the  physical  strength  to  live  the  hard 
life  before  us,  to  support  the  long  marches  on  foot, 
thirst,  hunger,  nakedness,  heat,  and  cold.  If  there 
be  such  I  give  them  full  permission  to  retire;  let 
them  go  back  to  their  villages  and  pray  for  us." 
As  there  was  no  reply  to  this,  he  went  on  to  speak 
of  the  very  lofty  sense  of  duty  and  the  strict  rules 
148  / 


THE    STANDARD    OF    REVOLT 

of  conduct  that  should  govern  the  Jedais^  who, 
having  bid  farewell  to  life,  were  now  ready  to  sac- 
rifice themselves  for  the  fatherland.  Their  enemies 
were  many,  and  would  certainly  slander  them;  but 
it  behooved  them  so  to  act  that  none  could  look 
askance  at  them  with  good  reason.  It  was  for  them 
to  exemplify  by  the  righteousness  of  their  lives  what 
was  meant  by  "the  exaltation  of  the  glory  of  Islam 
and  the  Ottomans,  through  obedience  to  the  Sacred 
Law  of  Mohammed  which  was  the  basis  of  the  Con- 
stitution." The  Constitution  was  to  bring  equality 
and  justice  to  all  Ottomans  without  distinction  of 
race  and  religion.  They,  as  the  apostles  of  the  Con- 
stitution, must  exemplify  this  equality  and  justice. 
It  behooved  them,  while  the  band  wandered  over 
the  country,  to  regard  the  honour  of  the  inhabitants 
as  their  own  honour,  to  be  kindly  in  their  dealings 
with  them,  to  be  guilty  of  no  act  of  oppression,  to 
thieve  nothing,  though  urged  by  the  pangs  of  bur- 
ger, and  above  all  things  to  respect  all  the  women 
of  the  country  and  to  observe  chastity.  He  ex- 
plained that  he  would  punish,  without  exception, 
any  of  his  followers  who  in  the  above  respects  was 
a  wrong-doer  even  in  the  slightest  degree,  and  that 
the  one  penalty  that  he  would  inflict  would  be  that 
of  death;  for  the  safety  of  the  fatherland  neces- 
sitated this  severity.  He  told  them  that  he  had 
taken  measures  to  provide  for  their  immediate 
needs.  He  would  give  each  man  three  Turkish 
pounds  for  the  support  of  his  family  and  two  silver 
medjidiehs  for  his  tobacco,  and  he  undertook  to  pro- 
149 


TURKEY 

cure  food  and  clothes  for  them.  "These  are  the 
stringent  conditions  of  service,"  he  concluded.  "Do 
you  approve  of  them.'*  If  so,  swear  by  the  Unity 
of  God  that  you  accept  them  from  your  heart  and 
soul." 

In  reply  the  fedais  raised  an  enthusiastic  cry  of 
*'Wallahi,  hillahV  (in  the  name  of  God,  yes!). 

Of  the  nine  private  soldiers  who  had  marched 
from  Resna  under  the  belief  that  they  were  being 
led  against  the  Bulgarians,  four  now  asked  permis- 
sion to  return.  Niazi  took  their  arms  and  sent 
them  back  to  the  oflScer  commanding  the  battalion 
of  chasseurs  at  Resna,  with  a  letter  in  which  he  ex- 
plained that  the  men  were  in  no  wise  to  blame,  as 
they  had  been  deceived  by  himself.  Of  the  civilians 
who  had  joined  the  band  only  one  displayed  timidity 
at  this  last  moment,  so  Niazi  allowed  him  to  return 
to  his  home  and  entrusted  the  man  with  the  letters 
and  manifestos  which  he,  Niazi,  had  written  during 
the  previous  night,  instructing  him  to  deliver  them 
to  the  mudir  of  the  district;  and  to  the  mudir  he 
sent  a  separate  letter,  ordering  him,  with  threats, 
to  forward  these  documents  to  the  various  people 
to  whom  they  were  addressed. 

Then  the  bugle  sounded  and  the  little  band  of 
zealots  marched  on  again  through  the  beautiful  Bal- 
kan countryside,  in  the  glorious  summer  weather,  to 
their  unknown  destiny  —  a  band  of  sworn  ascetics 
who  harmed  no  men  save  the  agents  of  the  Despotism 
who  stood  in  their  way,  and  these  they  slew  without 
pity;  to  all  others  they  were  as  brothers,  protecting 
150 


THE    STANDARD    OF    REVOLT 

the  weak  and  oppressed  of  whatsoever  race  or  creed, 
preaching  the  gospel  of  justice  and  equahty. 

The  bands  of  the  racial  propaganda  that  had 
hitherto  passed  through  the  Balkans  had  terrorised 
the  population  with  murder,  robbery,  and  the  viola- 
tion of  women,  whereas  this  band  gained  the  confi- 
dence of  all  and  was  welcomed  in  the  villages.  This 
was  indeed  as  a  company  of  knights-errant,  but  these 
were  no  visionaries  tilting  at  wind-mills;  the  aim  of 
the  fedais  was  the  overthrow  of  the  reign  of  tyranny 
and  corruption;  Niazi's  bands  and  the  other  bands 
of  the  Committee  of  Union  and  Progress  which  fol- 
lowed its  example  actually  succeeded,  as  we  shall 
see,  not  only  in  winning  over  the  entire  Moslem 
population  of  this  region  to  the  cause,  but  in  uniting 
the  various  races  that  had  been  cutting  each  other's 
throats  for  years,  so  that  the  whole  strength  of  the 
Macedonian  peoples  was  brought  together  to  oppose 
the  Despotism. 


151 


CHAPTER  XI 

THE  INSURRECTION  IN  BULGARIA 

WTHIN  a  few  hours  of  the  departure  of 
Niazi  Bey  and  his  band  from  Resna,  the 
officials  of  the  Yildiz  had  been  informed 
by  telegraph  of  the  outbreak  of  the  insurrection. 
After  a  consultation  of  the  Sultan's  advisers  a  tele- 
gram was  sent  to  General  Shemshi  Pasha,  then  in 
conmiand  at  Mitrovitza  in  the  northern  Vilayet  — 
who  was,  as  I  have  explained  in  a  former  chapter,  a 
trusted  officer,  than  whom  none  had  greater  experi- 
ence in  crushing  revolt  in  Macedonia  and  Albania 
—  recounting  to  him  what  had  occurred,  and  order- 
ing him  with  the  least  possible  delay  to  move  the 
necessary  troops  from  JNIitrovitza  to  Monastir,  and 
to  raise  volunteers  from  among  the  people,  "so  as  to 
surround  and  seize  the  ungrateful  traitor,  Niazi, 
together  Avith  the  officers,  officials,  private  soldiers, 
and  civilians  who  are  his  companions."  The  Gen- 
eral was  further  informed  that  his  Majesty  expected 
him  to  prove  his  fidelity  and  loyalty  by  making 
these  wicked  men  a  telling  example  to  other  sedi- 
tious persons,  and  relied  upon  him  to  cleanse  that 
portion  of  the  Empire  of  this  mischief  and  to  pre- 
vent its  spread  by  measures  of  the  severest  nature. 
152 


INSURRECTION    IN    BULGARIA 

The  ill-fated  Shemshi  displayed  his  loyalty  and 
zeal  by  working  night  and  day  to  compass  the 
destruction  of  Niazi  and  his  band  of  fcdais.  On 
July  6  he  arrived  with  two  battalions  at  Monastir  by 
special  train;  another  battalion  was  closely  follow- 
ing, and  seven  other  battalions  were  marching  into 
the  disturbed  districts.  The  usual  trickery  of  which 
the  creatures  of  the  Palace  were  so  fond  was  also 
employed  to  support  the  operations  of  the  troops. 
Thus,  in  order  to  excite  Moslem  fanaticism  and  per- 
suade men  to  serve  as  volunteers,  it  was  assiduously 
rumoured  that  the  Christians  were  rising  to  mas- 
sacre the  Mussulmans,  a  falsehood  that  produced 
but  little  effect;  while  delegates  were  sent  through 
the  villages  to  tell  the  people  that  the  Constitution 
desired  by  the  Committee  of  Union  and  Progress, 
and  advocated  by  the  bands  under  Niazi  and 
others,  was  opposed  to  the  religion  of  Islam,  "its 
doctrines  being  as  vile  as  that  which  permits 
women  to  go  about  unveiled."  The  Palace  also 
arranged  with  the  local  officials  that  attempts  should 
be  made  to  corrupt  the  members  of  Niazi's  band, 
rank  and  money  being  ofiPered  to  any  of  these  who 
would  kill  him. 

In  the  telegrams  in  which  he  reported  progress  to 
the  Palace,  Shemshi  stated  that  he  was  unable  to 
obtain  any  reliable  information  concerning  the  rebels 
from  either  the  military  authorities  or  the  Vali,  and 
that  no  one  could  tell  him  where  the  Committee  of 
Union  and  Progress  was,  or  the  names  of  its  members. 
All  that  his  spies  had  been  able  to  discover  was  that 
153 


TURKEY 

the  heads  of  the  people  in  those  parts  were  full  of 
seditious  ideas  and  that  many  men  of  importance 
were  on  the  Committee;  the  movement  was  evidently 
spreading,  and  Staff -Major  Enver  Bey  had  aban- 
doned his  uniform  and  gone  off  to  join  the  sedi- 
tious Committee.  Nevertheless  he,  Shemshi  Pasha, 
assured  his  Majesty  the  Caliph  that  he  would  exert 
himself  until  he  breathed  his  last  breath  (words  the  lit- 
eral truth  of  which  were  soon  to  be  proved)  to  root  up 
this  seditious  growth.  He,  moreover,  reported  that 
he  had  sent  messages  to  the  Albanian  notables,  and 
that  thousands  of  brave  Albanians  were  prepared,  in 
answer  to  his  call,  to  pour  into  the  disaffected  dis- 
tricts and  punish  these  people  who  were  unfaithful 
to  their  religion  and  traitors  to  their  sovereign.  He 
also  announced  that  two  battalions  would  at  once 
march  in  the  direction  of  Resna,  and  that  he  was 
confident  of  his  speedy  success  in  stifling  the  con- 
spiracy. 

His  confidence  was  misplaced,  for  of  the  Albanian 
chiefs  upon  whose  help  he  relied  the  greater  number 
had  become  adherents  of  the  Committee  of  Union 
and  Progress,  while  all  the  oflScers  and  non-commis- 
sioned officers  of  one  of  the  two  battalions  which  he 
was  sending  to  surround  Niazi  had  sworn  the  oath 
of  fidelity  to  the  Committee.  But  Shemshi  had  his 
doubts;  for  he  confessed  to  the  notables  of  Monastir 
that  the  Rumelian  troops  which  he  had  brought  with 
him  were  not  of  much  account,  and  that  he  was 
anxiously  awaiting  the  arrival  of  an  entire  division  of 
Anatolian  troops  which  the  Government  was  sending 
154 


INSURRECTION    IN    BULGARIA 

to  him  from  Asia  Minor.  Shemshi's  own  brother- 
in-law,  an  officer  of  gendarmerie  in  Monastir,  and  a 
member  of  the  Committee,  while  unable,  of  course, 
to  take  him  into  his  confidence,  attempted  to  prevent 
a  useless  shedding  of  Moslem  blood  and  to  save  the 
General's  own  life,  by  warning  him  that  the  troops  of 
Resna  and  its  neighbourhood  would  refuse  to  obey 
his  orders  if  they  were  called  upon  to  fire  on  Niazi's 
band.  In  the  meanwhile  the  Committee  of  Union 
and  Progress  had  full  knowledge  of  all  the  plans  of 
the  Government;  for  telegraph  clerks  and  other  offi- 
cials who  were  secret  adherents  of  the  cause  were 
able  to  betray  the  communications  that  passed  be- 
tween the  Yildiz  and  the  military  authorities  in 
Monastir. 

The  Committee  was  actively  employed  in  frustrat- 
ing the  plans  of  the  Government.  In  order  to 
counteract  the  influence  of  the  false  reports  that 
had  been  circulated  by  the  agents  of  the  Despotism 
it  placarded  the  walls  of  Monastir  with  manifestos 
on  the  night  before  Shemshi's  arrival.  These  mani- 
festos explained  that  the  aim  of  the  Committee  was 
to  free  Turkey  from  her  traitorous  Government 
which  had  been  corrupting  the  nation  for  thirty 
years  and  was  now  betraying  her  to  foreigners.  It 
called  for  the  immediate  removal  of  the  spies  who 
had  been  sent  recently  from  Constantinople,  and 
protested  against  the  illegal  carrying  off  of  the  peo- 
ple denounced  by  the  spies,  to  the  Inquisitions  of 
the  Yildiz  and  the  Central  Police  in  the  capital. 

The  Committee  also  organised  numerous   bands 
155 


TURKEY 

in  various  parts  of  the  country  so  as  to  confuse  the 
Government,  divide  its  forces,  and  prevent  a  concen- 
trated attack  on  Niazi.  It  kept  up  constant  com- 
munication with  Niazi,  keeping  him  well  informed 
of  the  movements  of  his  enemies.  The  Committee 
enjoined  him  to  avoid  coming  into  contact  with  the 
troops  that  had  been  sent  against  him,  but  if  this 
became  impossible,  to  force  on  a  decisive  action  that 
would  do  the  Government  great  damage.  As  the 
object  of  the  Committee  was  to  unite  all  the  different 
elements  of  the  Ottoman  population,  a  civil  war,  at 
this  juncture,  especially  if  it  took  the  form  of  a  con- 
flict between  the  Moslem  soldiery  and  the  Moslem 
peasantry,  would  obviously  be  a  deplorable  calamity. 
But  there  was  to  be  no  sparing  of  the  Government 
spies ;  and  the  Committee  gave  orders  that  the  Palace 
agents,  who  were  wandering  through  the  villages 
gaining  information  and  poisoning  the  minds  of  the 
people  against  the  Constitution,  should  be  put  to 
death. 

And  now  to  return  to  Niazi  Bey  and  his  wander- 
ings. After  his  halt  on  the  afternoon  of  his  depart- 
ure at  the  cross-roads,  where  his  band,  reinforced  by 
Osman  Effendi's  contingent  of  fedais  from  Persepe, 
had  attained  the  strength  which  he  considered  to 
be  the  most  suitable  for  his  purpose,  the  march 
was  continued  to  the  Moslem  village  of  Labcha,  to 
most  of  whose  inhabitants  he  and  his  followers  were 
well  known.  The  fedais  entered  the  village  shout- 
ing Allahu  Akber,  "God  is  very  great,"  and  La  ilaha 
illallah,  "there  is  no  God  but  God!"  Then  Niazi, 
156 


INSURRECTION    IN    BULGARIA 

through  the  Elective  Council  of  the  village,  called  in 
all  the  peasants  who  were  working  in  the  fields  and 
addressed  them.  Here  the  ground  had  been  well 
prepared.  There  were  none  among  the  inhabitants 
who  did  not  desire  the  restoration  of  the  Constitution. 
They  fell  upon  the  necks  of  Niazi  and  his  men  and 
embraced  them,  rejoicing  to  see  that  these  saviours 
of  the  country  were  now  openly  working  for  the 
cause. 

Here  one  of  the  elders  of  the  village,  an  ex-sergeant 
of  the  army,  begged  to  be  allowed  to  join  the  band. 
*'Do  not  deprive  me  of  this  happiness,"  he  said;  "for 
even  if  we  fail,  true  martyrdom  can  be  gained  on  this 
expedition."  But  Niazi  replied,  "My  heart  wants 
you  with  me,  but  you  must  stay  here,  for  this  village 
needs  your  presence.  I  intend  to  make  Labcha  my 
principal  base  and  our  place  of  refuge,  so  here  you 
can  help  the  cause  more  than  by  following  me." 
The  sergeant  therefore  remained  in  Labcha,  where 
his  zeal,  fidelity,  and  mother  wit  were  of  great  ser- 
vice. An  incident  which  occurred  in  this  village 
some  time  later  throws  a  curious  light  on  the  sys- 
tem of  self-government  which  was  introduced  by  the 
Committee  of  Union  and  Progress  into  the  villages 
that  had  accepted  the  Committee  as  their  virtual 
ruler.  The  sister  of  the  above-mentioned  sergeant 
had  told  her  husband,  a  man  of  Resna,  what  she 
knew  concerning  the  oath  which  the  representatives 
of  the  Committee  had  administered  to  certain  lead- 
ing inhabitants  of  Labcha;  and  this  foolish  fellow 
had  gone  about  boasting  that  he  was  in  possession 
157 


TURKEY 

of  the  secret,  mentioning  the  names  of  initiates. 
The  sergeant,  on  hearing  this,  summoned  the  vil- 
lagers to  a  meeting  at  which  it  was  decided  that,  as 
a  punishment  for  both  these  babblers,  the  man 
should  immediately  divorce  his  wife.  The  husband 
and  wife  came  before  this  irregular  tribunal,  whose 
orders  had  to  be  obeyed  more  implicitly  than  those 
of  the  law  courts  of  the  State,  and  on  begging  for 
forgiveness  obtained  the  revocation  of  the  sentence 
that  would  have  separated  them.  This  event  led 
to  the  creation  of  a  female  police  or  vigilance  com- 
mittee in  this  and  some  other  villages,  whose  chief 
duty  it  apparently  was  to  check  indiscreet  gossip 
concerning  the  Committee. 

As  in  Labcha  and  the  surrounding  villages  all  the 
men  were  strong  partisans  of  the  Committee,  there 
was  no  more  work  to  be  done  here  for  Niazi's 
band,  and  therefore,  after  purchasing  provisions 
and  refreshing  themselves,  the  fedais  set  out  again 
to  march  through  the  night. 

In  the  following  afternoon  they  came  to  the  neigh- 
bourhood of  the  Albanian  town  of  Ochrida,  where 
there  were  many  Palace  spies  and  a  considerable 
garrison,  so  that  it  was  not  possible  for  the  band 
to  enter  it;  but  there  was  also  here  an  important 
branch  of  the  Committee  of  Union  and  Progress,  and 
a  large  proportion  of  the  inhabitants  were  at  heart 
adherents  of  the  cause.  So  Niazi,  leaving  his  band 
encamped  in  a  cherry  orchard  in  the  hills,  walked  into 
the  town  under  cover  of  the  night.  Major  Eyoub 
Effendi  and  other  members  of  the  Committee,  who 
158 


INSURRECTION    IN    BULGARIA 

were  old  friends  of  his,  had  a  meeting  with  him  at 
the  house  of  one  of  the  faithful,  and  welcomed  him 
heartily.  They  told  him  that  two  detachments  of 
troops  had  left  Resna  to  surround  his  band.  They 
sent  up  to  his  camp  leather  water  bottles  and  other 
necessaries  of  which  his  men  were  in  want,  and  gave 
him  great  encouragement.  Here  he  took  the  oppor- 
tunity of  sending  a  manifesto  to  the  Albanian  Com- 
mittee, as  it  turned  out  later,  with  excellent  result, 
for  Niazi,  whose  birthplace  was  near  the  Albanian 
border,  and  who  was  himself  of  Albanian  stock,  had 
many  friends  among  the  Albanians,  and  was  much 
respected  by  them.  He  also  wrote  a  letter  to  his  old 
foe  Cherchis,  the  famous  leader  of  Bulgarian  bands. 
In  this  letter  he  explained  his  aim  to  Cherchis,  and 
told  him  that  he,  Niazi,  who  had  formerly  pursued 
Cherchis'  band  with  such  vigour,  now  extended  to 
him  the  hand  of  friendship,  and  asked  for  an  inter- 
view under  any  conditions  that  Cherchis  might  pro- 
pose, in  order  that  they  might  devise  a  scheme  for 
concerted  action  against  the  Government,  and  he 
reminded  him  of  the  proverb  which  says,  "the  sheep 
who  leaves  the  flock  is  torn  by  the  wolf."  Niazi's 
friends  took  him  back  to  his  camp  by  back  lanes 
and  paths,  and  the  band,  leaving  this  dangerous 
neighbourhood,  made  another  long  night  march  to 
the  north,  its  objective  being  Dibra  on  the  Black 
Drin,  the  centre  of  a  district  in  which  Niazi  knew 
that  he  would  find  many  adherents,  and  where  the 
forests  and  rugged  mountains  afforded  safe  retreats 
and  easily  defensible  positions. 
159 


TURKEY 

And  now  Niazi's  work  of  preparing  a  general 
insurrection  commenced  in  earnest.  The  story  of  his 
wanderings  cannot  be  fully  told  here,  but  I  will  give 
some  explanation  of  the  methods  he  employed.  It 
was  his  intention,  in  the  first  place,  to  carry  on  his 
operations  in  the  Moslem  villages  and  afterwards  to 
bring  in  the  other  elements  of  the  population.  He 
worked  with  the  greatest  energy,  often  visiting  and 
organising  several  villages  in  the  same  day.  It  was 
his  custom  to  send  a  small  advanced  party  of  his 
followers  under  an  officer  to  reassure  the  people, 
and,  this  done,  he  would  enter  the  village  with  the 
rest  of  the  band.  In  all  save  a  very  few  Moslem 
villages  thus  visited  the  fedais  were  received  with 
extraordinary  enthusiasm,  and  Niazi's  task  of  making 
the  inhabitants  sworn  adherents  of  the  Committee 
was  not  difiicult.  He  would  call  a  meeting  of  the 
villagers,  or,  having  attended  prayers  in  the  mosque 
with  his  band,  he  would  there,  after  the  prayers 
were  over,  address  those  present  with  stirring 
words,  explaining  to  them  the  lofty  aims  of  the 
movement  whose  soldier  he  now  was.  The  leading 
men  would  be  called  up  one  by  one  to  take  the  oath 
prescribed  by  the  Committee  of  Union  and  Progress, 
and  afterwards  the  other  inhabitants  would  come 
up  eagerly  to  be  sworn  in.  Among  those  who  thus 
became  adherents  of  the  Committee  were  many 
deserters  from  the  army  who  had  been  hiding  among 
their  families. 

Niazi  used  to  impress  it  upon  these  newly  made 
members  that,  as  they  were  now  united  as  brethren 
160 


INSURRECTION    IN    BULGARIA 

to  serve  the  same  high  purpose,  they  must  put  away 
all  differences  among  themselves,  and  forgive  each 
other  for  wrongs  inflicted.  The  cause  demanded  that 
their  blood  feuds  should  cease.  Throughout  this 
region,  and  especially  in  some  of  the  Albanian  dis- 
tricts, relentless  blood  feuds  between  families  and 
individuals  are  very  frequent,  and  to  be  murdered 
in  a  vendetta  is  regarded  as  the  natural  ending  to 
a  man's  life.  But  now  was  beheld  the  astonish- 
ing spectacle  of  a  general  reconciliation.  Men  whose 
families  had  been  slaughtering  each  other  for  gener- 
ations, embraced  publicly,  united  by  devotion  to  a 
common  cause;  and  old  men  who  had  not  dared 
to  go  outside  their  houses  for  years,  because  some 
ancient  crime  was  yet  unavenged,  once  more  went 
forth  freely  and  without  fear. 

The  villagers,  in  the  sincerity  of  their  welcome  to 
Niazi's  fedais,  whom  they  regarded  as  the  saviours 
of  Turkey,  often  refused  to  accept  payment  for 
the  food  and  other  necessaries  which  they  freely  and 
gladly  supplied  to  the  band;  but  Niazi,  when  he  did 
not  pay  in  cash  for  these  supplies,  insisted  on  giving 
receipts  for  their  value,  and  instructed  the  villagers 
to  show  their  receipts  to  the  authorities  and  deduct 
the  amounts  from  the  taxes  which  they  paid  to  the 
Government.  At  the  same  time  he  used  to  send 
manifestos  to  the  local  mudirs  and  other  oflScials 
warning  them  that  death  would  be  the  penalty  for 
the  tax  collector  who  refused  to  accept  these  receipts 
as  part  payment  of  taxes. 

A  village,  after  its  inhabitants  had  been  sworn 
161 


TURKEY 

in,  was  "organised"  according  to  certain  rules  laid 
down  by  the  Committee,  and  became  a  well-ordered 
centre  of  revolt.  In  the  first  place  the  authority  of 
the  Government  and  its  officials  was  disclaimed,  and 
tyrannical  oppression  was  prevented  by  the  united 
opposition  of  a  population  that  had  become  as  a 
band  of  brothers.  A  local  form  of  government  on 
constitutional  lines  was  set  up.  The  sources  of  the 
Government  revenue  were  appropriated  whenever  it 
was  possible  to  do  this,  and  in  some  districts  the 
villages  refused  to  pay  any  taxes  to  the  Government, 
offering  a  passive  resistance  that  would  have  taken  an 
active  shape  had  the  tax  collectors  ventured  to  push 
the  matter. 

For  the  purpose  of  mutual  protection,  relations 
were  established  between  the  various  villages  of  a 
district ;  and  a  certain  number  of  the  inhabitants  were 
secretly  organised  as  a  sort  of  militia.  Niazi  found 
that  from  one  hundred  to  two  hundred  and  fifty 
rifles  were  concealed  in  each  village  of  the  Dibra  and 
other  neighbouring  districts,  so  arms  were  not  want- 
ing. These  villages  had  suffered  greatly  from  the 
raids  of  the  Bulgarian  bands,  but  from  this  time  the 
organisation  introduced  by  Niazi  enabled  them  not 
only  to  hold  their  own  against  the  largest  bands,  but 
to  defy  the  attempts  of  the  Government  to  coerce 
them.  This  general  preparation  for  defence  brought 
a  peace  to  this  region  such  as  it  had  not  known  for 
years,  and  the  Moslems  themselves,  obeying  the 
orders  of  the  Committee,  refrained  from  any  aggres- 
sive actions;  all  the  Moslem  bands  that  were  in  the 
1C2 


INSURRECTION    IN    BULGARIA 

hills  were  dissolved,  the  men  who  composed  them 
returning  to  their  villages.  Niazi  made  it  clear  to 
all  adherents  of  the  Committee  that  it  was  above 
all  things  necessary  for  the  success  of  the  cause 
that  the  Moslems  should  carefully  avoid  any  con- 
flict, whether  with  Christian  bands  or  Government 
troops,  and  that  they  should  act  strictly  on  the  de- 
fensive until  the  Committee  gave  the  word  for  the 
general  insurrection. 

Niazi  thus  succeeded,  whithersoever  he  wandered 
over  the  Balkans,  in  winning  over  the  Mussulman 
land-owners  and  peasantry,  and  many  of  the  Gov- 
ernment oflicials,  to  the  revolutionary  cause;  and,  in 
the  meanwhile,  by  manifestos  and  letters  he  sought 
to  gain  the  confidence  and  support  of  the  Bulga- 
rian element  in  the  population.  Notwithstanding 
the  never-ceasing  warfare  between  them  in  Mace- 
donia, the  Turks  and  the  brave  and  manly  Bulga- 
rians were  more  in  touch  with  each  other  than  with 
any  of  the  other  races  in  the  Balkan  Peninsula. 
The  Turks  had  often  protected  and  were  soon 
again  to  protect  the  Bulgarian  exarchists  against 
the  fanatical  persecutions  of  the  Greeks.  It  was, 
therefore,  natural  that  Niazi  should  seek  the  co- 
operation of  the  Bulgarians  before  approaching  the 
other  Christian  peoples  of  European  Turkey. 

There  are  many  Bulgarian  villages  scattered  over 
the  region  in  which  Niazi  was  at  work,  and  their 
inhabitants  at  first  regarded  with  some  anxiety  the 
change  that  had  come  over  the  Moslem  population, 
which  for  several  years  had  appeared  listless  and 
163 


TURKEY 

devoid  of  hope,  not  having  the  separatist  aspirations 
which  buoyed  up  the  spirits  of  the  Christians,  but 
now  had  suddenly  become  cheerful  and  alert,  as  if 
looking  forward  to  some  great  and  happy  change. 
Suspicious  at  first,  the  Bulgarians  at  last  came  to 
realise  that  whatever  sentiment  was  stirring  the 
Moslems,  it  had  nothing  to  do  with  anti-Christian 
feeling,  and  was  not  antagonistic  to  themselves. 

On  July  6  Niazi  issued  his  important  manifesto 
to  the  Bulgarians.  He  proclaimed  to  them  that  the 
time  had  come  to  strike  a  blow  at  the  evils  that 
had  been  destroying  the  fatherland  for  years,  for 
the  Despotism  was  ever  becoming  more  intolerable. 
He  put  all  the  blame  on  the  Government;  but 
pointed  out  that  the  Christian  Ottomans  had  taken 
a  wrong  road,  while  seeking  a  better  state  of  things. 
They  had  heeded  the  false  advice  of  the  surrounding 
small  states,  Bulgaria,  Servia,  and  Greece,  which  had 
promised  to  free  Macedonia,  but  were  really  work- 
ing for  their  own  ends,  their  one  aim  being  to  seize 
the  country  and  enslave  its  people.  "These  little 
Powers  have  sown  hatred  and  dissension  among  us, 
and  have  deluged  the  fatherland  with  blood."  He 
assured  them  that  *'if  these  little  Powers  should 
work  on  thus  for  another  thirty  years  they  would 
not  attain  their  purpose.  The  fatherland  is,  and 
ever  shall  be,  ours."  He  then  went  on  to  explain 
that  the  Ottoman  Committee  of  Union  and  Progress, 
consisting  of  army  officers,  civil  officials,  townsmen, 
and  peasants,  all  honourable  men,  had  been  formed 
with  the  object  of  establishing  a  system  of  govern- 
164 


INSURRECTION    IN    BULGARIA 

ment  that  would  give  liberty  and  justice,  without 
distinction  of  creed  or  race,  to  all  Ottomans,  so  that 
they  might  live  in  peace  and  happiness  in  their  com- 
mon fatherland.  Then  he  spoke  of  his  band  of  armed 
fedais,  whose  mission  it  was  to  propagate  these  prin- 
ciples in  the  towns  and  villages,  and  to  bring  about 
the  co-operation  of  all  elements  of  the  population  in 
putting  a  stop  to  the  internal  dissensions  and  civil 
warfare  that  were  hastening  the  Empire  to  its  ruin. 
He  called  upon  the  leaders  to  dissolve  these  mischiev- 
ous bands,  to  join  his  own  band,  and  work  for  Otto- 
man liberty  and  justice,  instead  of  for  Bulgaria  and 
the  other  little  Powers.  Severe  punishment  would 
be  dealt  out  to  such  bands  as  did  not  come  in,  and 
if  any  village  gave  encouragement  to  the  bands  after 
this  warning,  its  head  man  would  be  executed.  They 
were  all  Ottomans,  and  they  must  all  co-operate  to 
establish  the  Constitution  which  gave  equality  and  lib- 
erty, and  protected  each  creed  and  race  and  language. 
This  manifesto  produced  a  wonderful  effect.  The 
Bulgarian  inhabitants  knew  that  Niazi  Bey  was  not 
speaking  idle  words,  and  threatening  to  do  things 
that  he  could  not  carry  out.  They  realised  that  if 
it  came  to  civil  war  the  Committee  of  Union  and 
Progress  would  have  practically  the  entire  Moslem 
population  of  Macedonia  and  Albania  on  its  side. 
Moreover,  they  knew  enough  of  Niazi  to  feel  that 
he  was  quite  sincere  in  his  declarations  and  prom- 
ises, and  many  of  them  had  observed  with  amazed 
admiration  the  just  and  honourable  conduct  of  his 
band  of  fedais.  Here  was  the  Turkish  officer  who, 
165 


TURKEY 

for  five  years,  had  been  vigorously  hunting  down  the 
Bulgarian  bands,  now  speaking  to  them  as  fellow- 
countrymen  and  brethren!  Hitherto,  they  argued, 
they  had  paid  heavy  taxes  to  a  Government  that 
had  given  no  account  of  how  the  money  was  spent, 
and  treated  them  as  dogs;  but  now  a  new  rule  was 
asserting  itself,  under  which  they  began  to  see  justice 
and  the  prospect  of  being  treated  as  human  beings. 

So  within  a  few  days  of  the  issue  of  his  manifesto, 
Niazi  received  intelligence  to  the  effect  that  the  Bul- 
garians of  Resna,  Ochrida,  Persepe,  and  other  dis- 
tricts had  held  meetings  at  which  it  had  been  decided 
that  "it  would  be  an  honour  to  serve  with  their  lives 
and  property  this  band  which  had  such  high  aims." 
Cherchis  himself,  too,  with  his  comrades,  desired 
to  effect  a  union  with  the  Committee  of  Union  and 
Progress. 

On  July  9  Niazi,  thinking  that  the  time  was  ripe, 
for  the  first  time  brought  his  band  into  a  purely 
Bulgarian  village.  This  was  the  large  village  of 
Velijon,  containing  three  hundred  and  fifty  houses. 
It  is  situated  on  a  hillside,  with  a  great  forest  behind 
it  sloping  up  steeply  to  the  wild  and  lofty  ridges  of 
the  Balkan  Range,  and  for  its  strategic  advantages 
it  had  been  selected  as  one  of  the  most  important 
supply  bases  for  the  Bulgarian  bands.  As  Niazi's 
vanguard  entered  the  village  the  inhabitants  took 
alarm,  closed  their  shops,  and  shut  themselves  up 
within  their  houses;  but  after  Niazi,  coming  in  with 
the  rest  of  his  band,  had  summoned  the  Elective 
Council,  and  explained  matters,  the  fears  of  the  vil- 
166 


INSURRECTION     IN     BULGARIA 

lagers  disappeared;  and  friendly  relations  were  soon 
established  by  the  kindly  and  courteous  officers  and 
Moslem  notables  who  composed  the  bulk  of  this 
remarkable  band.  The  end  of  it  was  that  the  priest, 
the  Elective  Council,  and  all  the  other  inhabitants  of 
the  village  placed  their  hands  upon  the  Holy  Gospels 
and  took  the  oath  of  fidelity  to  the  Committee,  un- 
dertaking to  carry  out  all  its  orders  and  render  armed 
assistance  to  the  cause  when  called  upon  to  do  so. 
When  the  band  marched  out  of  the  village  in  the  cool 
of  the  evening  the  friendly  Christians  accompanied 
the  fedais  for  some  distance  to  put  them  on  their 
way  and  then  bade  them  God  speed.  Shortly  after 
this  Niazi  was  enabled  to  amnesty  and  arrange  for 
the  coming  in  of  the  bands  that  were  in  the  hills 
round  Dibra,  which  place  was  made  an  important 
centre  of  the  insurrectionary  movement. 

It  was  about  this  time  that  Niazi  received  a  letter 
from  the  Monastir  Centre  of  the  Committee  which 
gave  him  great  encouragement.  It  thanked  him  and 
*'the  heroic  self-sacrificing  men  of  Resna"  for  the 
splendid  work  they  were  doing,  and  informed  Niazi 
that  his  friend,  Major  Enver  Bey,  the  clever  staff 
ofiicer  who  had  performed  distinguished  service  in 
Macedonia,  had  thrown  up  his  commission,  and  at 
the  head  of  a  band  oi  fedais  was  actively  preparing  the 
population  in  the  Tikosh  district,  while  other  officers 
had  also  organised  bands,  and  taken  to  the  mountains. 
The  fortunes  of  the  cause  appeared  very  bright. 

He  also  learnt  from  this  letter  that  General  Shem- 
shi  Pasha  had  been  publicly  assassinated  in  Monastir 
167 


TURKEY 

on  July  7.  The  General,  after  reporting  progress 
to  the  Palace,  had  left  the  telegraph  office  and  was 
driving  in  his  carriage  to  join  the  two  battalions 
with  which  it  was  his  intention  to  surround  Niazi's 
band,  when  he  was  shot  dead  by  an  oflScer  in  uniform. 
Fifteen  hundred  people  were  surrounding  the  car- 
riage at  the  time,  but  not  one  attempted  to,  or  had 
any  wish  to  arrest  this  executioner  of  the  Com- 
mittee's will,  who  strolled  quietly  off.  The  ill-fated 
Shemshi  was  an  energetic  commander,  and  had  he 
lived  there  would  undoubtedly  have  been  some  severe 
fighting  between  such  troops  as  would  have  remained 
loyal  to  him  and  the  Committee's  bands.  Shemshi 
would  probably  have  led  his  troops  to  disaster,  for 
his  boldness  and  confidence  in  himself  amounted  to 
rashness,  and  he  despised  his  enemy.  Ambushes 
had  been  prepared  for  him  on  the  roads  by  which  he 
would  have  had  to  march;  and  Niazi,  operating  in  a 
difficult  mountain  country,  with  an  armed  population 
skilled  in  guerilla  war  to  stand  by  him,  was  now  in 
a  position  to  hold  his  own  for  an  indefinite  time 
against  any  forces  that  the  Government  could  send 
against  him.  There  can  be  little  doubt  that  the 
death  of  Shemshi  prevented  a  civil  war  that  would 
have  done  much  injury  to  the  cause  of  the  Com- 
mittee, for  it  would  have  divided  public  opinion,  the 
unanimity  of  which  it  was  of  such  importance  to 
secure.  From  the  date  of  Shemshi's  death  the  im- 
potence of  the  Government  and  the  disorganisation 
of  the  army  made  it  difficult  for  the  Palace  to  plunge 
the  country  into  the  horrors  of  internecine  conflict. 
168 


CHAPTER  XII 

THE   PALACE   AND    THE   GREEKS 

THE  preparations  for  the  general  rising  now 
advanced  very  rapidly.  Enver  Bey,  declining 
further  treacherous  offers,  which  included 
the  promise  of  his  promotion  to  General  rank  if  he 
would  return  to  Constantinople,  led  his  band  of 
fedais  through  the  mountains,  and  won  village  after 
village  to  the  revolutionary  cause.  The  story  of  this 
young  officer's  escape  in  disguise  from  Salonica,  his 
adventures  in  the  wilds,  and  the  brave  work  he  did 
for  Turkey,  is  told  throughout  his  country.  He  has 
become  the  popular  hero,  and  is  held  in  the  high- 
est estimation  by  his  comrades;  for  the  complete  ab- 
sence of  any  jealousy  among  the  young  officers  who 
devoted  themselves  to  the  liberation  of  their  father- 
land is  a  pleasing  feature  of  this  patriotic  move- 
ment. Niazi  writes  of  Enver  as  follows:  "He  who 
in  the  time  of  sorrow  and  hopelessness  encouraged 
and  fortified  us  with  his  ardent  words  and  serious 
ways,  Enver  Bey,  whose  like  is  seldom  to  be  met." 
Salah-ed-Din  Bey,  Hassan  Bey,  and  other  officers 
were  also  wandering  over  Macedonia  and  Albania 
with  their  bands,  gaining  thousands  of  adherents 
among  the  land-owners  and  the  peasantry;  and  at 
169 


TURKEY 

the  same  time  others  were  educating  the  rank  and 
file  of  the  army,  with  the  result  that  a  large  propor- 
tion of  the  troops  garrisoning  this  region  were  ready 
to  fight,  even  against  their  own  comrades,  if  called 
upon  to  do  so. 

Niazi  Bey  had  practically  won  over  the  bulk  of 
the  Moslem  inhabitants  of  Western  Albania,  a  won- 
derful achievement  indeed.  For  one  who  knows 
these  fanatical  Albanian  tribesmen  finds  it  diflBcult 
to  understand  how  they  could  listen  with  sympathy 
and  patience  to  the  gospel  of  universal  brotherhood, 
and  the  extension  of  equal  rights  to  Christian  and 
Mussulman.  But  Niazi,  with  his  rough,  strong  elo- 
quence, his  obvious  sincerity  and  single-mindedness, 
his  magnetic  personality,  and  his  commanding  pres- 
ence —  for,  like  many  Albanians,  he  is  a  man  of  great 
stature  and  sturdy  build  —  is  evidently  a  born  leader 
of  men;  and  he  was  successful  not  only  in  gaining 
over  the  Albanians,  but  in  holding  back  these  eager 
warriors  until  their  armed  assistance  should  be  called 
for,  and  in  making  them  patch  up  their  sanguinary 
tribal  and  family  blood  feuds,  some  of  which  had 
endured  for  centuries.  Moreover,  a  large  propor- 
tion of  the  young  officers  of  the  Third  Army  Corps 
were  of  Albanian  stock,  and  of  these  several  were 
able  to  influence  their  countrymen  in  the  Committee's 
favour. 

Niazi  and  his  band,  during  their  memorable 
twenty  days'  wandering  in  the  hill-country,  avoid- 
ing the  main  roads  and  threading  in  single  file  the 
difficult  mountain  tracks,  ran  many  dangers  and 
170 


THE  PALACE  AND  THE  GREEKS 

suffered  considerable  hardships.  At  times  the  pur- 
suing Government  troops  were  close  at  their  heels; 
sometimes,  but  not  often,  the  fedais  came  to  a  vil- 
lage whose  inhabitants  were  hostile.  Thus,  on  one 
occasion,  when  hungry,  thirsty,  and  weary  they  ap- 
proached a  village  in  order  to  obtain  the  bread  and 
cheese  and  water  which  seem  to  have  composed  their 
usual  diet,  the  villagers,  whose  minds  had  been  poi- 
soned against  the  Committee  by  an  emissary  of  the 
Palace,  came  out  armed  to  the  teeth,  and  danger- 
ously excited,  and  threatened  to  fire  upon  the  band. 
The  position  was  an  awkward  one,  for  Niazi  not 
only  had  the  hostile  village  in  front  of  him,  but  had 
in  his  rear,  and  not  far  off,  a  large  detachment  of 
troops  under  a  Bosnian  officer,  which  had  been  sent 
to  cut  him  off.  So  the  band,  foodless  and  worn  out 
with  fatigue,  had  to  take  to  the  upper  slopes  of  the 
mountain  for  safety.  Niazi  is  an  obstinate  man. 
He  was  determined  either  to  convert  that  village  to 
the  cause  or  to  give  it  a  severe  lesson.  A  few  days 
later  he  talked  the  villagers  over  to  repentance  of 
their  error;  they  took  the  oath  of  allegiance  to  the 
Committee,  and  supplied  the  band  with  two  days' 
rations  of  bread  and  cheese,  for  which  they  refused 
to  accept  payment.  Moreover,  the  Bosnian  oflBcer, 
on  receiving  the  news  of  Shemshi  Pasha's  execution 
at  Monastir,  abandoned  his  pursuit  of  Niazi  and 
marched  with  his  band  to  Ochrida  to  submit  to  the 
Committee. 

On   July    12   Niazi,   having   been    summoned    to 
Ochrida   to   confer   with   the   Committee,   marched 
171 


TURKEY 

boldly  into  that  town  with  his  band,  none  daring  to 
interfere  with  him,  so  much  had  the  authority  of 
the  Government  been  weakened  by  this  time.  Here 
the  members  of  the  Committee  gave  him  informa- 
tion concerning  the  other  bands,  and  instructed  him 
to  keep  in  touch  with  them,  as  the  time  was  near 
when  an  important  combined  movement  might  be 
made.  They  told  him  that  the  Government  had 
sent  General  Osman  Pasha  to  Monastir  as  Com- 
mander Extraordinary  of  the  Vilayet,  in  the  place 
of  the  assassinated  Shemshi  Pasha,  and  that  the 
Bulgarian  Executive  Committee  had  issued  instruc- 
tions to  all  the  Bulgarian  villages  to  the  effect  that 
the  Moslem  revolutionary  bands  should  be  treated 
hospitably  and  with  consideration,  but  that,  until 
further  orders,  armed  assistance  must  not  be  given. 
Niazi  was  also  informed  of  the  shooting,  by  order 
of  the  Committee,  of  the  imam,  Mustapha  Effendi, 
and  other  dangerous  agents  of  the  Palace. 

The  business  completed,  Niazi's  band  marched 
out  of  the  town,  and  followed  the  sandy  shores  of 
the  great  lake  of  Ochrida,  where  they  were  warmly 
welcomed  in  the  villages  of  the  Bulgarian  fishing- 
folk.  The  objective  of  the  band  was  Istarova,  but 
on  the  way  they  carried  out  their  mission  in  the 
villages,  swearing  in  the  people,  overthrowing  the 
authority  of  the  Government,  establishing  elective 
administrative  bodies,  and  expelling  any  tax-gath- 
erers or  other  servants  of  the  Government  who  had 
oppressed  the  people,  or  were  known  to  be  sub- 
servient to  Palace  influence.  Threatened  at  one 
172 


THE  PALACE  AND  THE  GREEKS 

point  by  a  pursuing  detachment  of  four  hundred 
men,  Niazi  divided  his  band  into  small  parties  and 
took  up  commanding  positions  on  the  rocky  hills 
that  bordered  the  main  road.  But  it  turned  out 
that  the  detachment  was  under  the  command  of 
Captain  Ziya  Bey,  a  young  officer  whose  sympa- 
thies were  with  the  revolutionaries.  Ziya  Bey  and 
some  other  officers  came  up  to  Niazi's  camp,  offered 
to  join  the  band  so  soon  as  their  services  should 
be  needed,  and  undertook  to  withdraw  the  detach- 
ment from  the  neighbourhood.  There  was  another 
detachment,  too,  in  pursuit  of  the  band  at  that 
time,  but  it  had  purposely  been  sent  off  in  a  wrong 
direction. 

It  was  Niazi's  intention  to  make  Istarova,  the 
centre  of  an  important  district,  his  head-quarters  for 
a  short  while.  His  band  made  a  triumphal  progress 
through  the  district.  The  villagers  were  all  eager 
to  be  sworn  as  adherents  of  the  Committee.  In  one 
village  Niazi  ordered  the  execution  of  a  particularly 
iniquitous  tax-gatherer  (who  succeeded  in  effecting 
his  escape)  and  the  man's  rams  were  divided  among 
the  members  of  the  band,  who  were  thus  enabled 
to  enjoy  a  luxurious  meal  for  a  change.  Before 
entering  Istarova,  Niazi  sent  a  letter  to  the  principal 
Goverment  official  in  the  place,  the  kaimakan  (or 
administrator,  of  the  Caza,  or  district  of  Istarova), 
an  honourable  young  man  who  had  exercised  his 
authority  with  justice,  and  of  whom  the  peasants 
in  the  district  had  spoken  well  to  Niazi.  It  was  a 
characteristic  letter,  in  which  Niazi,  after  explain- 
173 


TURKEY 

ing  that  all  the  inhabitants  of  the  district,  Moslem 
and  Christian,  had  sworn  to  stand  by  the  Commit- 
tee, told  him  that  though  he  entertained  a  great 
esteem  for  him  as  a  just  ruler  of  the  people,  at  the 
same  time  he,  Niazi,  regretted  that  the  kaimakan 
had  shown  negligence  in  one  important  particular; 
for  in  that  large  district  there  was  not  a  single 
school.  "The  calamities  of  this  nation,"  he  went 
on,  "are  mainly  due  to  the  ignorance  of  the  peo- 
ple," and  he  urged  him  to  do  his  best  to  promote 
education. 

On  July  16  the  band  entered  Istarova,  where  the 
men  enjoyed  a  welcome  and  much-needed  rest  ■ — 
the  villagers  supplying  cigars  and  coffee  to  cheer 
them  —  and  were  able  to  sleep  in  unwonted  secu- 
rity, surrounded  by  their  friends;  for  in  that  district 
of  a  hundred  villages,  with  a  population  of  30,000, 
all  men  were  with  the  Committee  of  Union  and 
Progress,  while  any  troops  that  might  have  proved 
troublesome  had  been  removed  to  a  distance  by 
arrangement  with  friendly  oflScers.  As  for  Niazi,  he 
saw  to  the  swearing  in  of  the  people  of  Istarova,  and 
the  election  of  the  administrative  body,  and  then 
he  preached  the  gospel  of  the  Constitution  in  the 
Mosque,  and  recommended  the  newly  appointed 
administrative  body  to  build  schools,  to  educate  the 
people,  and  to  repair  their  mosques,  and  for  this 
purpose,  on  behalf  of  his  band,  he  subscribed  the 
sum  of  two  pounds.  The  kaimakan  himself  sought 
out  Niazi  in  the  night,  and  praised  him  to  his  face 
as  a  brave  man  and  a  bringer  of  justice  to  the 
174 


THE  PALACE  AND  THE  GREEKS 

people,  declared  his  belief  in  the  righteousness  of  the 
Committee's  aim,  and  placed  himself  under  Niazi's 
orders.  Thus  did  Niazi  influence  all  the  men  with 
whom  he  came  into  contact. 

Throughout  the  following  day  Niazi  remained  in 
Istarova,  which  presented  a  very  animated  appear- 
ance, for  there  poured  into  the  village  thousands 
of  peasants  from  all  the  surrounding  countryside, 
eager  to  be  sworn,  together  with  a  number  of  sol- 
diers who  had  deserted  to  join  Niazi,  and  had  come 
in,  bringing  their  rifles  with  them,  from  the  neigh- 
bouring garrisons  and  posts.  There  was  good 
reason  for  Niazi's  exultation  in  the  success  of  the 
movement.  Resna,  Ochrida,  Persepe,  Dibra,  Malisa, 
and  now  Istarova  had  all  been  brought  within  the 
revolutionary  union  by  the  efforts  of  the  bands. 
He  now  knew  that  with  a  word,  when  the  time 
came,  he  would  be  able  to  summon  a  large  armed 
force  to  execute  the  Committee's  will. 

And  now  to  leave  the  mountains  and  the  bands  of 
brave  fedais  for  a  while,  to  return  to  the  less  whole- 
some atmosphere  of  the  Yildiz  Palace,  and  follow 
the  last  vain  efforts  of  the  Despotism  to  crush  the  life 
out  of  the  revolutionary  movement.  The  advisers 
of  the  Sultan  were  fully  aware  of  the  significance 
of  the  reports  that  came  to  them  from  Macedonia, 
though  the  newspapers,  officially  inspired,  still  spoke 
hghtly  of  "unimportant  manifestations  of  disaffec- 
tion in  a  few  garrisons."  There  were  high  Govern- 
ment ofiicials  in  the  European  Vilayets  who  ventured 
to  inform  the  Palace  of  the  exact  state  of  affairs. 
175 


TURKEY 

Notable  among  these  was  the  Vah  of  Monastir, 
who  in  the  following  despatch  to  the  Grand  Vizier 
(dated,  I  think,  July  17)  pointed  out,  as  plainly  as 
he  dared,  that  the  revolutionary  movement  was  too 
strong  for  the  Despotism,  that  further  repressive 
measures  must  fail,  and  could  only  result  in  useless 
bloodshed,  and  that  it  would  be  well  to  submit  to  the 
will  of  the  people  and  grant  a  Constitution.  The 
last  suggestion  was,  of  course,  put  in  an  ambigu- 
ous way,  for  at  that  time  no  one  had  the  courage 
to  mention  the  word  Constitution  to  the  Sultan. 
The  following  is  a  translation  —  some  repetitions 
and  unimportant  details  being  omitted  —  of  the 
despatch  in  question. 

"It  has  been  ordered  by  an  Imperial  Irade  that 
Niazi  Bey  and  his  companions  should  be  arrested. 
The  existence  of  the  powerful  Committee  of  Union 
and  Progress  has  been  proved  by  the  severity  of  the 
measures  which  it  adopts.  It  stands  not  alone;  for, 
as  has  already  been  intimated  in  official  despatches, 
the  oflScers  of  the  army  are  united  in  a  determina- 
tion to  support  the  demands  of  the  Committee;  and 
the  population,  likewise,  is  in  league  with  the  Com- 
mittee. To  leave  aside  the  question  of  the  pursuit 
of  Niazi,  I  beg  to  state  that  none  will  now  venture 
to  undertake  the  duty  of  making  investigations. 
The  members  of  the  commission  which  was  formed 
under  the  presidency  of  Shukri  Pasha  to  institute 
inquiries  (the  spy  commission)  have  been  obliged  to 
abandon  their  work  in  consequence  of  the  secret 
176 


THE  PALACE  AND  THE  GREEKS 

threats  which  were  conveyed  to  them.  The  ulema 
who  were  sent  by  the  Government  to  travel  through 
the  country  and  give  advice  to  the  villagers  have 
been  warned  by  the  Committee  of  Union  and  Prog- 
ress that  they  would  be  killed  if  they  continued  to 
do  this,  so  they  have  returned.  The  lives  of  all 
officials,  my  own  included,  are  in  peril.  It  has  been 
shown  that  the  Committee  has  the  power  of  exe- 
cuting its  threats.  Here,  in  Monastir,  when  Gen- 
eral Osman  Hidayet  Pasha  had  gathered  his  officers 
around  him  to  read  to  them  the  telegram  which 
communicated  the  high  Irade  of  his  Imperial  Maj- 
esty the  Caliph,  he  was  shot  by  one  of  the  officers, 
who  fired  three  times  at  him  in  the  presence  of  all 
these  people,  and  yet  this  ofiicer  was  not  arrested, 
and  it  has  been  found  impossible  even  to  ascertain 
his  name.  The  police  and  judiciary  oflScials  are 
meditating  resignation  from  their  posts  in  order  to 
save  their  lives  if  pressure  is  brought  upon  them  to 
make  them  carry  out  their  duties.  As  for  me,  your 
servant,  my  ancestry  having  been  faithful  for  four 
hundred  years,  and  myself  having  served  the  Gov- 
ernment in  various  capacities  for  the  last  forty -four 
years,  I  consider  that  for  me  to  resign  my  post  in 
this  hour  of  trouble  would  be  an  act  of  ingratitude; 
and  therefore,  despite  the  perils  to  which  I  and 
my  family  are  exposed,  I  am  prepared  to  discharge 
my  duty,  that  is,  to  devise  means  preventing  the 
active  co-operation  of  the  people  with  the  officers  of 
the  army,  whose  views  and  aims  they  undoubtedly 
share. 

177 


TURKEY 

"At  the  same  time  I  consider  it  a  duty  and  a 
proof  of  my  loyalty  that  I  should  submit  to  you 
in  detail  the  true  facts  of  the  situation.  I  must 
inform  you  that  the  sentiments  of  which  I  am 
speaking  are  now  acquiring  a  strong  hold  upon  the 
private  soldiers.  The  six  battalions  which  were 
sent  to  Resna  now  remain  there  inactive,  and  their 
commanders  confess  their  powerlessness.  Should  any 
attempt  be  made  to  pursue  Niazi,  the  soldiers  will  re- 
fuse to  fire  upon  him  and  his  band.  I  may  mention 
in  proof  of  this  that  when  General  Shemshi  Pasha 
was  assassinated  here,  the  men  of  his  Albanian 
body-guard,  the  gendarmes,  and  the  other  soldiers 
present,  when  pursuing  the  criminal  in  accordance 
with  the  orders  given  to  them,  discharged  their 
rifles  in  the  air  and  allowed  the  assassin  to  escape. 
According  to  private  information  which  I  have  re- 
ceived it  is  believed  that  the  troops  who  are  to  be 
despatched  from  Anatolia  will,  on  their  arrival  here, 
refuse  to  use  their  arms  against  their  comrades. 
What  I  have  stated  concerning  the  condition  of  this 
region  is  applicable  also,  so  I  am  informed,  to  the 
Vilayets  of  Salonica  and  Kosovo. 

"The  urgency  of  this  matter  and  the  fact  that 
this  movement  is  daily  gaining  strength  and  spread- 
ing with  extraordinary  rapidity  being  taken  into  con- 
sideration by  the  Government,  I  submit,  prompted 
by  my  loyalty,  that  the  time  for  either  measures  of 
persuasion  or  those  of  force  and  severity  have 
passed,  and  that,  in  order  to  obviate  a  still  worse 
state  of  things,  other  more  effective  measures,  more 
178 


THE  PALACE  AND  THE  GREEKS 

consonant  with  the  times,  should  be  adopted.    I  am 
awaiting  your  commands." 

The  plan  of  the  Palace  was  to  crush  the  revolt 
with  a  great  force  of  troops  from  Anatolia;  but  as 
straightforward  methods  by  themselves  never  suf- 
ficed the  Sultan's  advisers,  underground  devices  were 
also  employed.  The  Greek  element  in  Macedonia 
on  previous  occasions  had  been  found  willing  to  join 
hands  with  the  Turkish  Government  in  the  suppres- 
sion of  Bulgarian  rebellions,  so  Munir  Pasha,  who 
had  for  some  years  been  the  Turkish  Ambassador  in 
Paris,  was  now  sent  to  Athens  to  arrange  for  the 
organisation  of  Greek  bands  to  attack  the  Moslem 
and  Christian  supporters  of  the  Committee  of  Union 
and  Progress.  The  Palace  also  attempted,  by  offers 
of  full  pardons,  gifts,  and  promotions,  to  withdraw 
army  officers  from  the  revolutionary  movement,  and 
so  leave  the  disorganised  followers  of  the  Committee 
of  Union  and  Progress  an  easy  prey  for  the  forces 
that  were  to  be  brought  against  them.  The  thirty- 
eight  young  ofiicers  who  had  been  arrested  in  Salo- 
nica  and  were  imprisoned  in  the  capital  were  released 
and  pardoned.  Thousands  of  officers  in  the  army 
and  navy  were  astonished  to  find  themselves  sud- 
denly promoted,  and  decorations  were  distributed 
wholesale.  The  Palace  entertained  the  foolish  belief 
that  every  man  has  his  price;  but  all  this  hypocriti- 
cal benevolence  was  of  no  avail  and  only  served  to 
lay  bare  to  the  world  the  incompetence  and  panic  of 
the  Camarilla  in  the  hour  of  danger. 
179 


TURKEY 

It  was  decided  to  despatch  no  less  than  forty- 
eight  battahons  from  AnatoHa  to  overpower  the  dis- 
affected Macedonian  army,  and  had  these  Asiatic 
troops  proved  staunch  there  would  have  been  a 
terrible  shedding  of  blood.  Twenty-seven  of  these 
battalions  were  transported  by  sea  from  Smyrna  to 
Salonica,  where  they  disembarked  on  July  16.  The 
efforts  of  Dr.  Nazim  Bey  and  other  agents  of  the 
Young  Turk  party  had  already,  to  a  large  extent, 
inoculated  these  troops  with  the  revolutionary  doc- 
trines before  they  left  Asia  Minor,  and  from  the 
moment  of  their  embarkation  at  Smyrna  the  emis- 
saries of  the  Committee  were  at  work  among  them, 
testing  the  officers  to  find  out  who  were  of  the  revo- 
lutionary party  and  using  persuasive  arguments  with 
the  rank  and  file.  Some  of  the  regiments  on  reach- 
ing Salonica  refused  to  proceed  to  Monastir  and  were 
isolated  from  the  rest.  The  remaining  regiments 
were  marched  to  Monastir,  and  with  them  went 
officers  who  were  initiates  of  the  secret  society,  dis- 
guised as  sherbet  sellers,  mollahs,  and  so  forth,  ever 
winning  over  adherents  to  the  cause.  It  soon  be- 
came clear  that  the  bulk  of  the  officers  and  men  of 
this  force  were  in  sympathy  with  the  troops  whom 
they  had  been  sent  to  slaughter,  and  that  they  would 
never  fire  upon  their  comrades  of  the  Third  Army 
Corps.  These  battalions  that  entered  Monastir 
were  soon  persuaded  to  take  the  oath  of  allegiance 
to  the  Committee  of  Union  and  Progress. 

The  state  of  affairs  in  the  third  week  in  July  may 
therefore  be  summed  up  as  follows:  The  Govern- 
180 


THE  PALACE  AND  THE  GREEKS 

ment  still  nominally  ruled  and  administered  the 
three  Vilayets  of  Monastir,  Salonica,  and  Kosovo, 
but  its  authority  had  been  reduced  to  impotence. 
In  the  chief  military  centre,  Monastir,  General 
Osman  Pasha  was  in  command,  but,  knowing  the 
temper  of  his  men,  hesitated  to  attempt  decisive 
action  to  crush  the  insurrection.  The  men  of  the 
Second  and  Third  Army  Corps,  and  of  the  regiments 
that  had  been  brought  from  Anatolia,  were  either 
adherents  of  the  Committee  or  wavering  in  their 
allegiance  to  the  Government.  It  was  unlikely  that 
more  than  a  small  proportion  of  the  troops  would 
be  found  willing  to  fight  the  battles  of  the  Palace. 
The  Moslem  and  Bulgarian  peasants,  among  whom 
arms  had  been  distributed  by  the  Committee  of 
Union  and  Progress,  were  awaiting  the  word  to  take 
part  in  the  general  rising.  Ten  thousand  Albanian 
warriors  were  in  arms,  eager  to  fall  upon  the  sup- 
porters of  the  Despotism. 

The  one  doubtful  element  of  the  population  was 
the  Greek.  It  appears  that  the  Palace  had  not  only 
sent  Munir  Pasha  to  Athens  to  seek  the  assistance 
of  those  intriguing  subjects  of  King  George  who  used 
to  equip  the  brigand  bands  that  had  been  the  curse 
of  Macedonia;  but  it  also  issued  instructions  to  Gen- 
eral Osman  Pasha  in  Monastir  to  persuade  the  Greek 
bands  within  his  district,  by  means  of  what  bribes 
or  promises  I  cannot  say,  to  hunt  down  and  cap- 
ture Niazi  and  the  other  leaders  of  the  insurrection. 
It  is  undoubtedly  the  fact  that  the  Greek  bands, 
assisted  by  hired  Mussulman  desperadoes,  were  dis- 
181 


TURKEY 

playing  great  activity  at  this  period,  and  that  the 
Greek  clergy  were  directing  a  vigorous  persecution  of 
the  Bulgarian  exarchists.  The  Committee  of  Union 
and  Progress  dealt  firmly  with  this  one  disturbing 
element  in  an  otherwise  peaceful  and  united  country. 
For  example,  the  Committee  carried  away  the  Greek 
Bishop  of  Vodena  as  a  hostage  and  let  it  be  known 
that  he  would  be  put  to  death  in  three  days  unless 
by  that  time  all  the  bands  in  that  neighbourhood 
had  been  broken  up. 

On  July  22,  by  which  time,  as  I  shall  show,  the 
young  Turk  leaders  had  come  boldly  into  the  open 
to  demand  from  the  Sultan  his  abdication  or  a  Con- 
stitution, the  Committee  of  Union  and  Progress  in 
Monastir  issued  a  manifesto,  of  which  copies  were 
sent  to  the  Greek  Committee  in  Athens,  the  spirit- 
ual head  of  the  Greek  community  in  Monastir, 
and  to  the  chiefs  of  the  various  Greek  bands  in  the 
neighbourhood . 

This  manifesto,  after  stating  that  "the  Yildiz, 
in  opposition  to  the  will  of  the  people,  had  attempted 
to  bring  about  a  diversion  against  the  Young  Turk 
movement  by  effecting  a  union  between  the  Hellenes 
and  the  Patriarchate,  and  with  that  object  had  sent 
Munir  Pasha  to  stir  up  feeling  in  Greece  against  the 
Committee,  and  that  this  scheme  had  been  attended 
with  some  success,"  proceeded  as  follows:  "You 
know  that  our  Committee  of  Union  and  Progress, 
having  worked  in  secret  for  the  welfare  of  all  races 
and  creeds  in  Turkey,  has  now  come  forth  to  openly 
proclaim  its  aim  —  the  winning  of  liberty  for  the 
182 


THE  PALACE  AND  THE  GREEKS 

nation.  The  tyrannical  Government  has  sown  the 
seeds  of  sedition  and  has  brought  about  conflicts 
and  bloodshed  between  the  various  races  and  creeds 
in  the  land.  We  being  all  brothers,  working  together 
for  the  salvation  and  happiness  of  the  country,  ask 
of  you,  our  Greek  fellow-countrymen,  that  you  no 
longer  use  differences  of  race  and  creed  as  an  excuse 
for  the  shedding  of  blood.  If  your  real  object  is  to 
obtain  equality,  well-being,  and  Hberty,  be  with  us 
and  seek  no  outside  advice;  be  even  as  our  Bulgarian 
brothers,  who  by  their  sincerity  and  by  their  deeds 
have  proved  their  sympathy  for  our  high  aims.  If 
you  will  not  unite  with  us,  we  ask  of  you  at  least  to 
remain  neutral,  and  we  call  upon  you  in  the  name  of 
humanity  to  cease  this  shedding  of  blood.  We  warn 
you  against  the  dangers  of  Hellenism.  If  you  Greeks 
in  the  Monastir  Vilayet  do  not  put  a  stop  to  your 
Hellenic  agitation,  your  brother  Greeks  in  Anato- 
lia, who  are  much  more  numerous  than  yourselves, 
will  suffer  as  well  as  yourselves.  Secret  negotiations 
between  the  Yildiz  and  the  Patriarchate  will  lead, 
not  to  your  happiness,  but  to  your  injury  and  de- 
struction. We  advise  our  Greek  brothers  not  to 
be  deceived  by  these  shameless  artifices  which  the 
Yildiz  has  oftentimes  practised.  We  ask  that  the 
Greek  bands  should  no  longer  go  hither  and  thither 
shedding  blood  in  their  mistaken  racial  and  religious 
zeal.  Let  the  Hellenes  among  them  return  to  their 
homes  in  Greece.  Let  them  scatter.  It  is  also  intol- 
erable to  us  that  these  bands  have  low  Moslems  in 
their  pay  who  commit  atrocities.  We  will  find  out 
183 


TURKEY 

and  kill  these  Moslems  if  they  do  not  at  once  aban- 
don the  Greek  bands.  We  call  upon  you  to  have 
these  Moslems  sent  away,  else  with  you  will  be  the 
responsibility  for  the  blood  that  will  be  shed,  and 
you  will  be  condemned  by  the  civilised  world.  With 
much  affection  we  invite  our  Greek  compatriots  to 
unite  with  us  in  striving  for  our  main  objects  —  the 
restoration  of  our  Constitution  and  the  gaining  of 
equality  for  all.  We  cannot  doubt  that  God,  who 
has  created  us  all,  will  grant  success  to  those  only 
who  work  for  humanity  and  civilisation." 


184 


CHAPTER  XIII 

A  BLOODLESS   VICTORY 

AND  now  the  hour  was  drawing  near  when 
Niazi  was  to  be  called  upon  to  do  the  deed 
that  would  bring  the  insurrection  to  a  head 
and  send  the  Despotism  tumbling  down  like  a  house 
of  cards.  Leaving  Istarova  on  July  17,  Niazi 
and  his  band  of  fedais  set  out  for  Resna.  After  a 
fatiguing  march  across  the  mountains  (in  the  course 
of  which  the  provisional  administration  was  intro- 
duced into  several  friendly  Moslem  and  Christian  vil- 
lages, and  some  detours  had  to  be  made  in  order  to 
avoid  collision  with  a  battalion  of  chasseurs,  whose 
officers  and  men,  being  strangers  to  the  country  and 
not  members  of  the  Committee,  were  likely  to  be 
dangerous)  the  band  entered  Labcha,  the  first  village, 
it  will  be  remembered,  that  Niazi  had  visited  and 
organised  on  the  day  of  his  setting  out  from  Resna. 
Here,  as  in  Istarova,  the  fedais  were  among  staunch 
friends  and  were  enabled  to  sleep  in  security;  there 
was  no  necessity  for  sending  out  patrols  or  for  posting 
sentries,  for  these  duties  were  performed  by  the 
villagers  themselves,  who  were  proud  to  guard  the 
saviours  of  the  nation  as  they  rested.  The  vil- 
lage was  also  protected  by  a  detachment  of  troops 
which,  like  many  another  little  garrison  in  the  three 
185 


TURKEY 

Vilayets,  had  mutinied,  its  officers  and  men  becoming 
the  sworn  associates  of  the  Committee. 

On  the  following  day,  July  19,  there  was  a  great 
gathering  of  people  in  Labcha,  wild  hillmen,  shep- 
herds, deserters  from  the  army,  and  others,  who  had 
come  in  to  see  Niazi  and  his  band  and  to  declare  their 
readiness  to  take  up  arms  for  the  Committee.  Niazi 
addressed  the  people,  told  them  how  successful  had 
been  the  mission  of  his  own  and  of  the  other  bands, 
and  assured  them  that  the  sand  had  all  but  run  out 
of  the  glass,  and  the  day  was  very  near  when  the 
Despotism  would  fall  and  liberty  prevail.  That  glad 
day  was  indeed  nearer  than  Niazi  himself  imagined; 
for  that  very  evening  there  came  a  messenger  into 
the  village  with  a  letter  for  Niazi  from  the  Ochrida 
Centre  of  the  Committee  of  Union  and  Progress. 
In  this  letter  the  Committee  informed  him  that  very 
important  and  grave  intelligence  had  been  received 
from  Monastir,  and  ordered  him  to  set  out  at  once 
for  Ochrida.  He  was  to  leave  his  band  outside  that 
town  and  come  in  alone  to  confer  with  the  Committee 
and  receive  his  instructions. 

So  soon  as  Niazi  had  read  this  letter  he  collected 
his  men  and  made  a  forced  march  throughout  the 
night,  for  all  were  eager  to  learn  the  nature  of  the 
duty  which  they  were  to  be  called  upon  to  perform. 
Before  dawn  —  July  20  —  the  outskirts  of  Ochrida 
were  reached,  and  Niazi,  leaving  his  band,  entered 
the  town  and  went  to  the  house  of  his  brother,  where 
the  members  of  the  Committee  came  to  meet  him. 
It  was  then  explained  to  him  that  he  and  Eyoub  Bey 
186 


A    BLOODLESS    VICTORY 

were  to  collect  two  thousand  men  from  Ochrida  and 
Resna,  form  them  into  two  bands,  and  march  on 
Monastir  without  delay.  The  detailed  instructions 
as  to  what  he  was  to  do  would  be  delivered  to  him 
before  he  reached  that  town. 

As  Niazi  learnt  later,  the  Committee  of  Union  and 
Progress  had  decided  that  the  time  had  arrived  for 
it  to  make  its  great  coup.  The  plan  was  simulta- 
neously to  proclaim  the  Constitution  at  Monastir 
and  send  an  ultimatum  to  the  Sultan,  who  would  have 
to  choose  between  constitutional  government,  abdica- 
tion, and  a  bloody  civil  war.  In  the  first  place  it  was 
necessary  for  the  Committee  to  secure  the  possession 
of  Monastir,  the  head-quarters  of  the  Government's 
military  strength  in  Macedonia,  where  General 
Osman  Pasha,  an  able  man  who  exercised  a  greater 
moral  influence  over  his  troops  than  did  his  prede- 
cessor, Shemshi  Pasha,  was  still  in  command.  The 
bulk  of  the  troops  in  Monastir  were  adherents  of  the 
Committee,  but  there  were  also  many  ready  to  obey 
the  orders  of  the  General.  It  was  realised  that  if 
Osman  Pasha  could  be  got  out  of  the  way  the  sup- 
porters of  the  Government  would  be  demoralised, 
and  the  Committee  might  then  be  able  to  establish 
its  authority  without  bloodshed.  The  killing  of  each 
other  by  Turkey's  Moslem  soldiers  was  a  calamity 
to  be  avoided.  It  was  therefore  decided  to  entrust 
to  Niazi  and  Eyoub  Beys  the  special  duty  of  remov- 
ing Osman  Pasha  from  Monastir  as  suddenly  and 
quietly  as  possible,  so  as  to  allow  no  time  for  the 
organisation  of  opposition. 
187 


TURKEY 

To  collect  the  necessary  two  thousand  men  was 
no  difficult  matter.  In  the  first  place  it  was  decided 
to  employ  the  very  troops  who  had  been  the  first  to 
pursue  Niazi  and  his  band  after  the  raising  of  the 
standard  of  revolt  at  Resna.  This  was  a  battalion 
of  redifs  of  the  Ochrida  district  which  had  been  dis- 
banded after  its  fruitless  chase  of  the  revolutionary 
leader,  because  the  authorities  rightly  suspected  that 
most  of  the  men  were  adherents  of  the  Committee 
of  Union  and  Progress.  So  messengers  were  sent 
to  the  neighbouring  villages  to  summon  these  dis- 
banded soldiers  —  who  had  not  yet  given  up  their 
arms  to  the  Government  —  to  assemble  at  an  ap- 
pointed place  outside  Ochrida.  Niazi  with  his  band 
marched  into  his  own  country  to  collect  the  men  of 
Resna,  Persepe,  and  Labcha.  Throughout  the  night 
of  the  20th  and  throughout  the  following  day  he 
traversed  the  mountainous  countryside,  his  band 
being  ever  increased  by  the  accession  of  fresh  volun- 
teers who  came  to  him  generally  in  threes  and  fours, 
but  occasionally  in  bodies  of  from  forty  to  fifty 
men.  Whenever  the  band  passed  through  a  village 
it  was  received  with  extraordinary  enthusiasm,  and 
the  villagers  brought  presents  of  bread  and  cheese 
until  each  man  was  provided  with  two  days'  rations, 
the  supply  which  Niazi  deemed  to  be  necessary. 

In  the  morning  of  July  21  Eyoub  Effendi,  with 
his  Ochrida  band  of  disbanded  redifs  and  others,  a 
thousand  men  in  all,  joined  Niazi's  band  at  Labcha, 
and  now  the  column  formed  by  the  two  united  bands 
set  off  in  the  direction  of  Monastir.  After  dark,  as 
188 


A    BLOODLESS    VICTORY 

they  were  approaching  their  appointed  night's  halt- 
ing place,  an  incident  occurred  which  is  interesting 
as  illustrating  the  manners  and  customs  of  the  wild 
Albanian  hillmen.  The  stillness  of  the  night  was 
suddenly  broken  by  the  sound  of  rifle-fire  on  the 
mountainside  above  the  road ;  so  Niazi  sent  out  scouts 
to  ascertain  what  was  happening.  It  turned  out 
that  the  Faragas  and  the  Quapris,  between  which 
two  tribes  there  had  existed  for  ages  a  deadly  blood 
feud,  had  each  sent  a  band  of  about  one  hundred  men 
to  join  Eyoub  Bey's  battalion;  these  two  bands  met 
in  the  mountain,  and  what  happened  may  be  best 
described  in  Niazi 's  own  words:  "It  was  indeed  a 
sight  worth  witnessing  —  this  meeting  of  the  men  of 
these  two  tribes,  between  whom  there  had  been  so 
intense  an  enmity,  but  who  were  now  united,  as  with 
one  heart,  ready  to  die  together  for  the  sake  of  the 
same  ideal.  These  tribesmen,  who  for  two  centuries 
had  hated  to  see  each  other's  faces  or  to  hear  each 
other's  voices,  and  who  had  ever  pursued  each  other 
with  rifle-shots,  had  now,  on  meeting  on  the  hillside, 
saluted  each  other  with  rifle-shots,  and  were  eager, 
standing  together  as  comrades,  to  use  rifle-shots 
against  the  traitors  and  enemies  of  the  fatherland." 
The  column  passed  the  night  in  the  village  of  Gau- 
char,  where  many  volunteers  from  the  surrounding 
country  joined  the  battalions  of  Niazi  and  Eyoub, 
bringing  the  force  up  to  the  strength  of  over  two 
thousand  men.  The  people  gathered  from  the  coun- 
tryside to  crowd  the  village  streets  throughout  the 
night  to  honour  and  entertain  the  fedais  with  simple 
189 


TURKEY 

refreshments.  All  these  people  were  prepared  to  risk 
everything  in  the  civil  war,  the  immediate  outbreak 
of  which  they  considered  as  inevitable. 

On  the  following  morning,  July  22,  the  column 
marched  under  a  blazing  sun  by  the  steep  zigzag 
tracks  that  cross  the  precipitous  ranges  of  Mount 
Pelista.  At  ten  o'clock  a  halt  was  made,  and  the 
*' National  Battalion  of  Ochrida"  under  Eyoub  Bey, 
and  the  "National  Battalion  of  Resna"  under  Niazi 
Bey,  were  arranged  in  their  roll-call  order.  There 
were  twenty  companies  or  bands  in  all,  under  twenty 
commanders,  who  included  among  them  one  lieuten- 
ant-colonel, several  majors  and  captains,  one  doctor 
of  medicine,  and  leading  Beys  of  the  Macedonian 
and  Albanian  land-owning  class.  Up  to  that  mo- 
ment these  National  troops  had  not  been  informed  of 
their  destination  or  of  the  object  of  the  expedition. 
So  now,  while  Eyoub  enlightened  his  battalion, 
Niazi  addressed  the  men  of  his  own  command.  He 
explained  how,  in  order  to  serve  the  beneficent  Com- 
mittee which  was  working  for  the  salvation  of  the 
country,  the  men  of  his  band  had  cheerfully  given 
up  comfort,  and  their  waives  and  families,  and  had 
been  ready  to  sacrifice  their  lives.  "But  now,"  he 
said,  "these  hardships  and  troubles  will  soon  be  a 
thing  of  the  past,  and  they  have  achieved  their 
purpose  well.  Relying  upon  the  success  which  God 
gives  and  the  inspiration  of  the  Prophet,  we  are 
now  on  our  way  to  the  head-quarters  of  the  Vilayet 
of  Monastir  to  carry  into  execution  a  most  impor- 
tant command  of  the  Committee.  Within  a  few 
190 


A    BLOODLESS    VICTORY 

hours,  if  we  are  successful,  we  shall  have  delivered 
our  country  from  its  afflictions.  Without  hurting  a 
hair  of  his  head  we  shall  take  the  Mushir  (Field 
Marshal),  Osman  Pasha,  from  his  residence  so  as  to 
prevent  him  from  carrying  into  effect  the  injuries 
which  it  is  in  his  mind  to  inflict  upon  the  Commit- 
tee and  the  fatherland.  May  God  enable  us  to  per- 
form this  duty  with  complete  success.  It  is  therefore 
necessary,  my  comrades,  that  you  should  carry  out 
the  orders  which  you  will  receive,  literally  and  im- 
plicitly. The  strictest  order  and  discipline  must  be 
maintained." 

The  men  rejoiced  to  hear  what  they  were  called 
upon  to  do,  and,  despite  their  fatigue,  when  the  order 
to  resume  the  march  was  given,  they  proceeded  along 
the  rough  roads  at  the  double,  eager  to  reach  Monas- 
tir  as  soon  as  possible.  While  the  column  was  on 
its  way,  there  came  to  it  a  most  acceptable  mascot 
in  the  shape  of  a  young  roebuck.  It  was  accompany- 
ing a  half-dozen  or  so  of  bashi-bazouks,  who  had 
with  them  a  letter  from  the  Committee  at  Monastir 
ordering  that  they  should  be  admitted  into  Niazi's 
band.  They  had  found  the  roebuck  in  the  hills,  and 
as  all  Turks,  even  if  they  be  savage  bashi-bazouks, 
are  fond  of  animals  and  are  invariably  kind  to  them, 
they  caressed  the  creature  and  gained  its  confidence 
so  well  that  it  had  followed  them  along  the  road. 
So  this  roebuck  now  became  the  pet  of  the  column 
and  marched  at  the  head  of  it,  fulfilling,  says  Niazi, 
the  function  of  a  guide,  *'for  by  some  instinct  it 
always  ran  on  in  the  direction  we  had  to  go." 
191 


TURKEY 

Niazi's  description  of  this  incident  well  illustrates 
the  kindly  and  religious  sentiment  of  the  Turks. 
"The  soldiers,"  he  tells  us,  "caressed  and  blessed 
it,  and  thanked  God  who  had  sent  us  this  beautiful 
animal,  which  fascinated  all  with  its  charming  ways. 
We  regarded  its  presence  as  a  propitious  sign,  a 
divine  message  of  approval  of  our  enterprise." 

In  the  evening,  the  column,  after  an  extraordinary 
forced  march,  reached  a  village  which  was  within  a 
few  miles  of  Monastir.  A  halt  was  called  so  that 
the  men  could  have  a  meal  and  rest;  and  here,  as  had 
been  arranged,  there  arrived  from  Monastir  Lieu- 
tenant Osman  Effendi  with  fifty  men,  bringing  a 
sealed  letter  for  Niazi  which  contained  the  Commit- 
tee's detailed  instructions  for  the  execution  of  the 
plan.  Once  more  Niazi  impressed  the  necessity  of 
silence,  steadiness,  and  obedience  on  the  men;  the 
order  was  given  to  march,  and  the  eager  fedais  hur- 
ried along  the  road,  sandal-shod,  and  therefore  almost 
noiselessly,  at  the  double,  and  covered  the  few  miles 
that  lay  between  them  and  their  destination  in  a  very 
short  time.  It  was  about  eleven  o'clock  at  night, 
and  there  were  but  few  citizens  in  the  streets,  when 
the  column  came  to  the  outskirts  of  Monastir.  Here 
the  main  body  remained  while  eight  hundred  men, 
divided  into  several  detachments,  and  guided  by 
members  of  the  Monastir  Committee,  passed  into 
the  town  by  various  routes  and  quickly  and  silently 
approached  and  surrounded  the  group  of  buildings 
which  contained  the  Government  House,  the  Head- 
quarters of  the  Commander-in-Chief,  and  the  ofiicial 
192 


A    BLOODLESS    VICTORY 

residence  of  General  Osman  Pasha.  At  the  same 
time  agents  of  the  Committee  cut  the  telegraph 
wires  and  so  prevented  the  General  from  holding 
any  communication  with  the  Yildiz  or  with  his  own 
staff.  The  sentries  guarding  the  General's  residence 
were  quickly  disarmed;  only  one  man  offered  resist- 
ance, but  he  was  pinioned  before  he  could  fire  his 
rifle  and  give  the  alarm.  Then  two  officers  and  some 
of  the  men  of  Niazi's  band  broke  into  the  room  where 
the  General  was  in  bed  sleeping,  and  he  was  awakened, 
not  unnaturally  furiously  angry,  to  find  himself  the 
prisoner  of  the  revolutionaries.  In  the  meanwhile 
other  bodies  of  men  discovered  and  placed  under 
arrest  the  Chief  of  the  Staff,  the  Officer  in  Com- 
mand of  the  Zone,  and  some  other  oflScers  who  were 
known  to  be  no  friends  of  the  Committee  of  Union 
and  Progress. 

His  captors  assured  Osman  Pasha  that  his  life  was 
in  no  danger,  but,  while  addressing  him  with  all  the 
respect  due  to  his  high  rank,  they  courteously  ex- 
plained to  him  that  their  instructions  were  to  escort 
him  with  all  marks  of  honour  to  Resna,  where  he 
was  to  remain  for  a  short  time  as  the  guest  of 
the  Committee  of  Union  and  Progress.  Then  they 
handed  him  a  letter  which  had  been  drawn  up  by 
the  Committee.  It  opened  with  the  correct  ceremo- 
nial salutations:  "In  the  name  of  the  most  merciful 
and  compassionate  God.  To  His  Excellency,  Mu- 
shir,  Osman  Pasha.  Peace  be  on  you  and  the  mercy 
of  God.  May  God  guide  us  and  you."  Then  the 
letter  proceeded  —  in  terms  so  polite  and  flattering 
193 


TURKEY 

that  one  wonders  whether  the  Committee  was  indul- 
ging in  sarcasm  —  to  point  out  that  the  courage  and 
ability  with  which  God  had  endowed  His  Excellency 
ought  to  be  used  to  direct  armies  to  crush  the  enemies 
of  the  fatherland,  and  not  to  attack  the  nation  itself; 
but  that,  unfortunately.  His  Excellency's  official 
appointment  and  the  extensive  powers  and  instruc- 
tions that  had  been  given  to  him  by  the  Yildiz  were 
calculated  to  induce  him  —  no  doubt  against  the 
dictates  of  his  own  conscience  —  to  commit  acts 
that  might  be  injurious  to  the  fatherland  and  cause 
the  repetition  of  such  regrettable  events  as  occurred 
in  Erzeroum  (the  Armenian  massacres).  His  Excel- 
lency's life,  the  letter  explained,  was  precious  to  the 
country;  when  the  Despotism  had  been  changed  for 
constitutional  government  his  services  might  be  re- 
quired for  the  reform  and  reorganisation  of  the  army. 
Consequently  the  Committee  proposed  to  rescue  His 
Excellency  from  his  present  awkward  situation,  and 
ventured  to  beg  him  to  consent  to  become  the  Com- 
mittee's honoured  guest;  it  trusted  that  he  would 
not  regard  this  as  in  any  way  bringing  disgrace 
upon  himself,  and  assured  him  that  everything  had 
been  arranged  that  could  safeguard  his  dignity  and 
contribute  to  his  comfort.  It  reminded  him  that 
opposition  to  the  Committee's  will  could  not  avail, 
for  his  house  was  surrounded,  all  officers  on  whose 
obedience  he  could  rely  were  under  arrest,  while  the 
troops  in  the  town  and  all  the  inhabitants  were 
adherents  of  the  Committee. 

Osman  Pasha  read  this  document  without  making 
194 


A   BLOODLESS   VICTORY 

any  comment  upon  its  contents,  and  asked  whether 
he  might  go  into  the  adjoining  room  to  put  on  his 
clothes;  but  the  two  officers,  fearing  lest  he  might 
attempt  suicide,  were  present  while  he  dressed.  Then 
the  General  left  the  house  and,  mounting  a  horse, 
was  escorted  by  Niazi  and  his  National  Battalion  of 
one  thousand  men  to  Resna,  which  was  reached  the 
following  night,  and  here  Osman  was  confined  as  an 
honoured  prisoner  in  the  house  of  one  of  the  notables 
of  the  place. 

On  that  day,  July  23,  Macedonia  and  Albania 
threw  off  the  Despotism,  and  even  as  Niazi's  men 
were  marching  to  Resna  with  their  prisoner  they 
heard  behind  them,  far  off,  the  sound  of  the  cannon 
in  Monastir  that  were  saluting  the  Constitution. 
Niazi  and  his  fedais  had  sworn  not  to  return  to  their 
homes  until  their  country  had  won  its  freedom,  and 
now,  having  faithfully  observed  their  oaths,  he  and 
many  of  his  followers  rejoined  their  rejoicing  wives 
and  families  in  Resna.  Throughout  the  following 
day,  July  24,  Resna,  like  every  other  town  and  vil- 
lage in  Turkey,  presented  an  extraordinary  spectacle. 
The  people  seemed  to  be  mad  with  enthusiasm  and 
delight.  Turks,  Bulgarians,  Greeks,  Servians,  Wal- 
lachs  were  all  as  brothers.  Several  Bulgarian  and 
Greek  bands,  one  of  the  former  led  by  the  redoubt- 
able Cherchis  himself,  tramped  into  Resna  that  day 
to  take  part  in  the  universal  jollification  and  frater- 
nisation. Banners  bearing  the  device,  "Liberty, 
Equality,  Fraternity,  Justice,"  and  national  flags 
innumerable  waved  in  the  breeze,  and  all  day  long 
195 


TURKEY 

the  people  were  shouting  themselves  hoarse  with  cries 
of  "Long  live  the  Nation!"  "Long  hve  the  Army!" 
"Long  live  the  Committee!"  After  a  twenty -four 
hours'  halt  in  Resna,  during  which  he  was  occupied 
in  receiving  the  Christian  band  leaders  and  adminis- 
tering the  oath  to  them,  and  making  arrangements  in 
case  of  a  levee  en  masse  of  the  people  (for  it  was  uncer- 
tain yet  whether  the  Sultan  would  submit  or  plunge 
the  country  into  civil  war),  Niazi,  by  order  of  the 
Committee,  marched  back  to  Monastir  with  the  two 
hundred  original  Jedais  of  his  band,  accompanied  by 
Cherchis  and  other  leaders  of  the  Christian  bands. 
And  here  Niazi  passes  out  of  this  story.  I  have 
given  a  somewhat  full  account  of  his  wanderings,  as 
the  narrative  will  make  clear  the  nature  of  the  work 
that  was  done  all  over  the  country  by  those  whose 
mission  it  was  to  gain  the  adherence  of  the  civil  pop- 
ulation to  the  revolutionary  cause;  and  I  think  that 
it  also  shows  that  those  virtues  without  which  no 
people  can  be  great  or  worthy  of  any  respect  —  pa- 
triotism, and  the  readiness  to  sacrijSce  self  for  a  high 
ideal — are  possessed  in  a  high  degree  by  the  Moslem 
Turks.  Niazi  was  the  first  young  ofiicer  to  take  to 
the  mountains,  and  it  was  to  his  lot  that  the  most 
important  work  fell;  but  it  needed  many  others  like 
him  to  make  the  insurrection  so  universal  as  it  was. 
Enver  Bey  and  dozens  of  other  young  officers  were 
doing  the  same  work  as  Niazi  and  with  like  success  in 
other  parts  of  the  country.  The  local  Committees, 
too,  appear  to  have  been  wonderfully  organised  and  to 
have  been  directed  by  single-minded  patriots  of  great 
190 


A    BLOODLESS    VICTORY 

ability  who  kept  ever  in  the  background,  their  names 
unknown,  and  took  no  part  in  the  pubHc  rejoicings 
when  the  victory  was  won.  Thus  the  Committees 
in  Uskeb  and  Janina,  by  their  diHgent  propaganda, 
respectively  won  over  the  allegiance  of  the  Northern 
Albanians  and  the  Southern  Albanians  at  the  same 
time  that  Niazi  was  gaining  that  of  the  Western 
Albanians.  Niazi  is  essentially  the  soldier,  simple 
and  straightforward  and  not  a  politician,  and,  now 
that  his  mission  at  the  time  of  his  country's  peril  has 
been  successfully  accomplished,  he  is  back  in  his  own 
province  quietly  fulfilling  his  military  duties  in  the 
midst  of  troops  who  would  follow  him  to  hell,  as  our 
own  private  soldiers  would  put  it. 


197 


CHAPTER    XIV 

TEE   COMMITTEES    ULTIMATUM 

ON  the  night  of  July  22,  so  soon  as  Osman 
Pasha  had  been  made  a  prisoner,  the  mem- 
bers of  the  Monastir  Centre  of  the  Com- 
mittee of  Union  and  Progress  proceeded  to  take  over 
the  government  of  the  city  and  to  secure  the  posi- 
tion that  had  been  gained  by  Niazi's  cowp.  In  the 
first  place,  the  Committee  sent  a  telegram  to  the 
Sultan  himself  (to  the  Presence  of  His  Sacred  Maj- 
esty, the  Caliph),  beseeching  him  to  command  the 
practical  application  of  the  Fundamental  Law  (the 
Constitution  of  1876)  in  order  that  the  loyalty  and 
devotion  of  his  subjects  might  remain  unimpaired; 
and  informing  him  that,  unless  an  Irade  ordering  the 
opening  of  the  Chamber  of  Deputies  was  issued  by 
the  following  Sunday  —  July  26  —  events  would 
"occur  contrary  to  your  Royal  will  and  pleasure." 
The  telegram  concluded  with  the  words:  "The  civil 
authorities,  the  officers  of  the  army,  the  soldiers,  the 
ulema,  and  sheikhs,  the  people  great  and  small,  of 
various  creeds,  within  the  Vilayet  of  Monastir,  all 
united  to  work  for  one  cause  by  an  oath  made 
upon  the  Unity  of  God,  await  your  commands." 
Another  telegram  was  despatched  to  inform  the 
198 


^ 


THE    ULTIMATUM 

head-quarters  of  the  Committee  in  Salonica  that  the 
coup  had  been  made  with  success,  and  during  that 
night  young  officers  posted  manifestos  on  the  walls 
in  that  city  calling  upon  the  people  to  co-operate 
with  the  Committee  and  overthrow  the  Despotism. 

On  the  morning  of  July  23  the  citizens  of  Mon- 
astir  woke  up  to  find  that  all  signs  of  the  Gov- 
ernment's authority  had  vanished,  and  that  the 
Committee  had  become  the  undisputed  master  of 
the  Vilayet.  It  was  a  day  of  frenzied  rejoicings. 
The  fifty  thousand  inhabitants  of  this  city  and  thou- 
sands of  people  from  the  surrounding  country  packed 
the  streets  to  cheer  and  sing  the  songs  of  liberty. 
Sometimes  a  narrow  way  would  be  opened  through 
the  dense  crowd  to  allow  the  passing  of  companies 
of  Anatolian  troops  joyfully  marching  to  some  ap- 
pointed spot  where  they  were  to  be  sworn  in  on  the 
Unity  of  God  as  adherents  of  the  Committee;  or  of 
a  body  of  citizens  carrying  aloft  on  their  shoulders 
the  fedais,  the  members  of  the  Moslem  bands  that 
had  saved  Turkey,  the  heroes  of  the  hour. 

And  ever  and  again  there  rose  a  roar  of  "Long 
live  the  Committee!"  and  the  people  went  about 
seeking  the  members  of  the  Committee,  eager  to  do 
them  honour  and  give  them  an  ovation  as  they  had 
done  with  the  fedais.  But  the  mysterious  and  invis- 
ible Committee  was  nowhere  to  be  found.  An  ab- 
sorbing curiosity  got  hold  of  the  people.  Who  were 
the  men,  they  asked  themselves,  who  had  acted  on 
the  executive  of  the  Committee,  the  secret  leaders 
who  had  issued  the  manifestos  and  orders,  who  had 
199 


TURKEY 

organised  the  movement  with  such  skill  and  daring? 
But  it  was  impossible  to  obtain  any  answer  to  this 
question.  It  was  not  until  some  days  after  the  Sul- 
tan had  granted  the  Constitution  that  Niazi  himself 
was  given  the  names  of  those  who  composed  the 
Monastir  Executive,  and  then  he  found  that  among 
them  were  some  of  his  most  intimate  friends. 

But  on  this  wonderful  day,  July  23,  the  executive 
body  of  the  Committee  was  too  busily  engaged  on 
most  important  work  to  come  forward  and  receive 
the  congratulations  that  were  its  due;  for  much 
had  yet  to  be  done.  The  Committee  decided  not 
to  await  the  Sultan's  reply  to  its  demand,  but  to 
proclaim  the  Constitution  that  very  day  in  Monas- 
tir, and  it  was  held  that  the  most  fitting  person  to 
make  this  announcement  to  the  people  would  be  the 
Governor  of  the  Monastir  Vilayet  himself,  the  Vali, 
Hifzi  Pasha.  The  Vali,  as  we  have  seen,  had  been 
bold  enough,  a  few  days  earlier,  to  tell  the  Palace 
the  exact  truth  concerning  the  state  of  affairs  in 
Macedonia.  In  reply  to  this  the  Grand  Vizier  had 
telegraphed  to  rebuke  him  for  lack  of  zeal  and  to 
give  him  certain  instructions.  On  this  the  Vali  had 
sent  in  his  resignation  to  the  Grand  Vizier  on  the 
ground  that  he  would  not  be  responsible  for  the 
bloodshed  and  outrages  which  must  follow  the  exe- 
cution of  such  orders.  It  was  well  known  to  the 
Committee  that  the  Vali  was  a  just  and  upright 
man  whose  sympathies  were  rather  with  the  friends 
of  liberty  than  with  the  Despotism  which  he  served. 

On   the   morning    of    the   twenty-third    the   Vali 
200 


THE    ULTIMATUM 

openly  joined  the  revolutionary  party.  He  sent 
telegrams  to  the  Sultan  and  the  Grand  Vizier  in- 
forming them  of  the  capture  of  Osman  Pasha,  and 
stating  that  the  entire  military  force  in  Monastir 
and  3500  armed  men  from  among  the  inhabitants 
were  now  the  sworn  adherents  of  the  Committee. 
In  the  afternoon  the  Vali  read  out  the  Commit- 
tee's proclamation  of  the  Constitution  in  the  pres- 
ence of  tens  of  thousands  of  enthusiastic  Moslems 
and  Christians,  and  the  garrison  of  Monastir;  and 
then  the  cannon  thundered  out  a  salute  that  told 
the  surrounding  country  that  Turkey  was  to  be 
made  free  at  last. 

On  this  same  day  the  Central  Committee  in 
Salonica  and  the  branch  Committees  in  other  towns 
came  forward  to  give  clear  proof  to  the  people  that 
the  domination  of  the  Palace  was  over.  The  Con- 
stitution was  proclaimed  in  Resna,  Dibra,  and  other 
towns  in  Macedonia  and  Albania  at  the  same  hour 
that  it  was  proclaimed  in  Monastir.  In  Salonica 
the  Central  Committee,  which  here,  too,  had  the  gar- 
rison on  its  side  and  the  Government  at  its  mercy, 
decided  that  it  would  be  to  the  interest  of  the 
revolutionary  cause  to  make  as  short  as  possible 
the  period  of  uncertainty  as  to  whether  it  was  to 
be  civil  war  or  peace;  the  enemies  of  liberty  must 
be  allowed  no  time  for  preparation  or  intrigue. 
Accordingly,  at  an  early  hour  on  June  23,  the  Com- 
mittee telegraphed  its  ultimatum  to  the  Sultan, 
informing  His  Majesty  that  unless  he  granted  the 
Constitution  within  twenty-four  hours  the  Second 
201 


TURKEY 

and  Third  Army  Corps  would  march  upon  Constan- 
tinople. 

The  Committee's  next  step  was  to  approach  the 
Inspector-General,  Hilmi  Pasha  (who  was  made 
Grand  Vizier  in  February  last),  and  to  call  upon 
him,  as  the  highest  Government  official  in  Mace- 
donia, to  proclaim  the  Constitution  to  the  people. 
Hilmi  had  been  a  good  servant  of  the  Sultan,  but 
at  heart  he  hated  the  corrupt  Palace  and  its  ways, 
and  recognised  the  justice  of  the  Young  Turkey 
cause  which  he  had  been  instructed  to  persecute, 
but  had  persecuted  so  half-heartedly  that  he  had 
drawn  upon  himself  the  rebukes  of  the  Grand  Vizier, 
Ferid  Pasha.  Hilmi's  attitude  was  now  correct  and 
courageous.  He  told  the  Committee  that  though  his 
sympathies  were  with  the  Young  Turkey  party,  he 
was  still  the  servant  of  the  Sultan,  and  conse- 
quently could  not  proclaim  the  Constitution  unless 
ordered  to  do  so  by  his  sovereign.  Upon  this  the 
Committee  informed  him  that  unless  he  proclaimed 
the  Constitution  within  twenty -four  hours  he  would 
have  to  suffer  the  penalty  —  that  is,  to  be  put  to 
death  —  that  the  telegraph  lines  were  at  his  disposal 
and  it  behooved  him,  within  the  given  time,  to  per- 
suade the  Sultan  that  resistance  to  the  will  of  the 
people  would  be  of  no  avail,  and  that  His  Majesty 
could  only  retain  his  position  on  the  throne  by  the 
immediate  restoration  of  the  Constitution. 

So  Hilmi  Pasha  now  sent  telegram  after  telegram 
to  the  Palace  to  explain  the  exact  state  of  affairs. 
He  exposed  the  absolute  hopelessness  of  the  cause 
202 


THE    ULTIMATUM 

of  the  old  regime  —  the  two  Pashas  on  whom  the 
Sultan  had  relied  to  destroy  the  Committee  of 
Union  and  Progress,  Hilmi  and  Osman,  were  the 
prisoners  of  the  Committee;  the  Anatolian  troops 
that  were  to  have  stamped  out  the  rebellion  had 
become  the  sworn  adherents  of  the  Committee;  the 
Second  and  Third  Army  Corps  now  formed  the 
army  of  the  Committee;  of  the  First  Army  Corps 
in  Constantinople  itself  the  Palace  Guards  alone 
were  above  suspicion;  there  was  no  time  to  arouse 
the  fanaticism  of  the  Arabs  and  other  Asiatics 
against  the  Young  Turks;  the  action  of  the  Ana- 
tolian regiments  that  had  been  brought  to  Salonica 
had  proved  that  the  Army  Corps  in  Asia  Minor  had 
also  been  brought  round  to  the  side  of  the  reform- 
ers; and  lastly,  from  all  over  the  Empire  the  news 
was  coming  in  that  Valis  of  provinces  and  other  high 
officials  had  deserted  the  Palace  Camarilla  for  the 
constitutional  party. 

That  day  the  people  of  Turkey  were  rejoicing  in 
their  newly  found  liberty;  but  it  was  a  twenty -four 
hours  of  suspense  and  anxiety  for  the  men  who  knew 
that  it  rested  on  the  decision  of  one  old  man  as  to 
whether  it  was  to  be  peace  or  civil  war.  The  ulti- 
matum of  the  Committee  and  the  telegrams  of  Hilmi 
Pasha  were  submitted  to  the  Sultan  by  his  terrified 
courtiers;  but  in  the  council  chambers  of  the  Yildiz, 
almost  up  to  the  last  moment,  there  was  hesita- 
tion and  a  conflict  of  opinions  as  to  the  course  that 
should  be  adopted  by  the  Government.  There  were, 
of  course,  members  of  the  Camarilla,  Izzet  Pasha 
203 


TURKEY 

among  them,  who  advocated  resistance  at  any  cost 
to  the  demands  of  the  Committee,  for  these  men, 
conscious  of  the  evil  they  had  wrought,  knew  that 
the  Constitution  would  mean  for  them  ruin  and  exile, 
and  perhaps  death. 

But,  in  the  meanwhile,  the  Sultan  had  dismissed 
his  Grand  Vizier,  Ferid  Pasha,  and  had  summoned 
to  his  Palace  Said  Pasha  and  Kiamil  Pasha,  the  two 
oldest,  most  experienced,  and  upright  statesmen  of 
his  reign,  both  of  whom,  though  no  admirers  of 
Palace  methods,  had  been  Grand  Viziers,  and  both 
of  whom  had  been  in  disgrace  and  danger  of  their 
lives  through  the  monarch's  caprice  and  the  jealousy 
of  corrupt  courtiers.  The  Sultan  now  appointed 
Said  Pasha  Grand  Vizier  in  the  place  of  Ferid  Pasha. 
Throughout  the  day  there  had  been  fear  and  wrath 
and  hesitation  in  the  Yildiz,  but  on  the  evening  of 
the  twenty-third  all  the  ministers  were  summoned 
to  the  Palace,  and  there  was  held  the  famous  last 
State  Council  under  the  old  regime.  There  was  a 
long  and  anxious  discussion,  and  to  and  fro  between 
the  Council  and  the  Sultan  went  the  Chief  Cham- 
berlain and  other  messengers,  keeping  His  Majesty 
informed  of  the  progress  of  the  debate  —  a  mere 
matter  of  form  as  laid  down  by  the  etiquette  of  the 
Palace,  for,  as  every  one  there  knew,  the  Sultan  was 
in  the  adjoining  chamber  sitting  on  the  other  side 
of  the  curtain  which  alone  divided  him  from  his 
consulting  ministers,  and  could  hear  every  word 
that  was  spoken. 

The  night  passed  by,  the  morning  was  near,  and 
204 


THE    ULTIMATUM 

the  ministers  were  still  debating.     Said  and  Kiamil 
urged   the   necessity   of    yielding,   and    there   were 
others  who  agreed  with  them;  but  Abdul  Hamid 
inspired  as  much  fear  as  ever  in  his  advisers,  and 
each  of  these,  knowing  of  what  things  that  listening 
man  was  capable  when  in  a  fit  of  anger,  was  afraid 
to  be  the  first  to   utter  the  long-forbidden  name 
"Constitution";  and  the  question  was  discussed  in 
that  ambiguous  and  circuitous  fashion  that  Orien- 
tals understand  so  well  how  to  employ.     At  last 
there  was  brought  in  to  the  Council  Chamber  on  a 
litter   the    bedridden    old   Arab    Court   Astrologer, 
Abdul  Houda,  a  favourite  of  the  Sultan,  who  has 
recently  died.     He  boldly  put  into  plain  words  what 
was  in  the  minds  of  all.     Then  Said  Pasha  asked 
the  ministers  whether  it  was  their  decision  that  the 
Sultan  should  be  advised  to  grant  the  Constitution. 
To  this  they  made  no  reply,  and  averted  their  eyes 
when  he  looked  from  one  to  another.     Then,  after 
a  pause.  Said  quoted  a  Turkish  proverb  which  is 
the  equivalent  of  our  own  "Silence  gives  consent." 
The  Sultan  was  forthwith  informed  of  the  decision 
of  his  ministers,  and  to  the  relief  of  all  he  agreed 
without  any  demur  to  restore  the  Constitution;  for 
the  shrewd  monarch  had  by  now  fully  realised  the 
position  and  had  made  up  his  mind. 

So  on  the  morning  of  July  24  the  great  news  was 
telegraphed  to  every  corner  of  the  Ottoman  Empire, 
and  everywhere  there  were  the  same  extraordinary 
demonstrations  of  popular  joy.  In  Constantinople 
huge  crowds,  composed  of  Moslems,  Christians,  and 
205 


TURKEY 

Jews,  flocked  to  the  Yildiz  to  cheer  the  Sultan.  On 
the  broad  quay  of  Salonica,  Hilmi  Pasha,  to  whom 
the  Sultan's  decision  had  meant  the  withdrawal  of 
his  death  warrant,  read  out  the  proclamation  of 
the  Constitution  to  tens  of  thousands  of  exulting 
citizens. 

The  Sultan  had  promised  the  Constitution,  and 
all  that  remained  to  be  done  now  was  for  him  to 
issue  the  Irade  that  should  confirm  that  promise 
and  to  take  the  oath  of  allegiance  to  the  Constitu- 
tion. Some  days  passed,  and  his  Majesty  had  taken 
no  steps  to  perform  these  necessary  formalities. 
The  ever-vigilant  Committee  of  Union  and  Prog- 
ress therefore  saw  to  it  that  there  should  be  no 
further  delay,  and  issued  its  orders.  Some  Mace- 
donian troops  were  hurriedly  brought  up  to  the 
capital  and  were  placed  outside  the  Yildiz,  while  a 
man-of-war  was  stationed  in  the  Bosphorus  imme- 
diately below  the  Palace,  with  its  guns  directed  on 
it.  Then  some  young  oflficers  belonging  to  the  Com- 
mittee demanded  an  audience  of  the  Sultan  and 
explained  to  him  that  he  must  sign  the  Irade  there 
and  then,  else  the  Macedonian  troops  would  over- 
power the  Palace  Guard  and  seize  his  Majesty's 
person.  The  Sultan  yielded,  the  Irade  was  signed, 
and  shortly  afterwards  the  Sheikh-ul-Islam  admin- 
istered to  Abdul  Hamid  the  oath  by  which  he  bound 
himself  to  restore,  and  to  observe  faithfully,  the 
Constitution  which  he  had  violated  thirty  years 
before. 


206 


CHAPTER  XV 

AFTER   THE  REVOLUTION 

THE  victory  had  been  won;  the  Young  Turkey 
party  was  triumphant;  the  Ottoman  people 
had  gained  their  Hberty.  There  was  com- 
plete individual  liberty  and  liberty  of  the  press;  there 
were  no  more  spies,  no  more  domiciliary  visits,  no 
more  oppression.  In  short,  the  Turks,  who  for  a 
generation  had  been  groaning  under  the  crudest  of 
Oriental  despotisms,  in  one  day  became  as  free  as 
the  people  of  England,  indeed  in  some  respects  con- 
siderably freer  than  them.  Peace  came  of  a  sudden 
to  this  troubled  land  which  had  for  so  long  been  an 
inferno  of  implacable  racial  hatreds,  all  men  went 
about  in  security,  and  the  peasants  were  able  to 
sow  their  fields  knowing  that  they  themselves  would 
be  the  reapers.  This  was  not  as  other  revolutions; 
for  though  for  a  time  there  was  no  law  in  the  land 
and  no  administration,  there  was  no  anarchy,  there 
were  no  cruel  reprisals,  there  were  no  excesses;  the 
conduct  of  the  entire  population  was  admirable. 

These  revolutionaries,  unlike  those  in  some  other 
lands,  did  not   hasten,  so  soon   as  they  had  freed 
themselves  of  one  despotism,  to  cast  upon  the  coun- 
try the  still  more  galling  chains  of  democratic  tyr- 
207 


TURKEY 

anny.  The  people  who  made  this  revolution  were 
the  educated  men  in  Turkey,  all  that  was  best  in 
the  country;  and  thus  from  the  beginning  this  had 
been  the  most  conservative  of  revolutions.  There 
was  nothing  approaching  to  socialism  or  anarchism 
in  this  movement.  The  Young  Turks,  as  I  have 
already  explained,  have  no  theories  about  the  recon- 
struction of  society;  they  have  no  schemes  for  the 
benefiting  of  one  class  by  the  spoliation  of  another; 
they  do  not  beHeve  that  one  man  is  as  good  as 
another,  or  that  manhood  suffrage  will  bring  the  mil- 
lennium. Like  the  English  revolution  of  1688,  this 
one  came  from  above  and  not  from  below.  That 
the  ignorant  masses  did  not  usurp  the  direction  of 
the  movement,  and  by  discrediting  it  prepare  the 
way  for  the  restoration  of  the  despotic  power,  was 
largely  due  to  the  fact  that  Turkey,  fortunately 
for  herself,  has  had  her  revolution  before  she  has 
arrived  at  that  stage  of  economic  and  industrial 
development  when  what  we  term  the  working-classes 
think  out  political  and  social  theories  or,  rather, 
accept  the  views  of  the  mischievous  demagogues 
who  mislead  them.  There  is  no  class  hatred  in 
Turkey;  there  are  no  large  manufacturing  industries 
to  produce  hordes  of  discontented  people  in  the  big 
cities,  and,  so  far,  there  are  no  agrarian  questions  to 
trouble  the  minds  of  the  simple  and  pious  Turkish 
peasantry. 

Of  the  seventy  thousand  exiles  who  returned  to 
Turkey  from  Europe  and  America  after  the  procla- 
mation of   the   Constitution   there  were  of   course 
208 


AFTER   THE    REVOLUTION 

some  who  had  mixed  with  Russian  anarchists,  with 
internationaUsts  and  other  pohtical  extremists,  and 
had  absorbed  their  theories;  but  these  are  in  a 
small  minority  and  exercise  no  appreciable  influ- 
ence. The  same  may  be  said  of  a  certain  set  of 
well-to-do  exiles  who  for  years  were  idle  Paris  fla- 
neurs, lost  some  of  their  Ottoman  virtues,  became 
poor  patriots,  and  have  now  returned  as  dilettante 
politicians,  some  of  them  to  join  the  party  which 
advocates  a  thorough-going  home  rule  all  round  for 
the  various  races  of  Turkey  —  a  programme  detest- 
able to  the  more  earnest  Young  Turks,  who  realise 
that  such  a  policy  would  lead  to  the  certain  disinte- 
gration of  the  Empire. 

But  it  is  of  the  attitude  of  the  people  themselves 
and  not  of  the  politicians  that  I  wish  to  speak  in 
this  chapter.  When  the  Ottomans  of  all  races  and 
creeds  suddenly  found  themselves  free  they  became 
filled  with  an  exceeding  joy,  a  new  sentiment  of 
brotherhood,  and  a  profound  gratitude  to  the 
saviours  of  the  country,  the  Committee  of  Union 
and  Progress,  that  took  the  practical  form  of  implicit 
obedience  to  the  Committee's  mandates,  so  that  it 
had  little  difiiculty  in  preserving  order.  All  over 
the  country  there  were  great  demonstrations  and 
rejoicings  of  enthusiastic  and  good-natured  crowds, 
that  touched  foreign  spectators  of  these  scenes 
and  compelled  the  sympathy  even  of  the  cynically 
inclined.  In  the  streets  and  cafes  and  tramcars  of 
the  capital,  wherein  men  had  been  wont  to  meet  in 
silence,  each  suspecting  the  other,  strangers,  united 
209 


TURKEY 

by  a  common  joy,  now  spoke  to  each  other  freely 
and  in  kindly  fashion.  It  was  a  reign  of  universal 
amity,  and  it  seemed  as  if  all  that  is  best  in  human 
nature  had  come  to  the  top.  European  witnesses 
have  described  the  wonderful  fraternisations  of  men 
of  all  races  and  creeds:  how  Turks,  Armenians, 
Bulgarians,  and  Jews  harangued  sympathetic  crowds 
in  the  streets  of  the  capital,  preaching  peace  and 
good  will  among  men;  how  even  in  Beyrout,  notori- 
ous for  the  massacres  of  Christians  under  the  late 
regime.  Christian  priests  and  turbanned  mollahs  em- 
braced publicly  before  fraternising  mobs  of  Moslems 
and  Armenians;  how  in  the  same  city  the  Turkish 
commander  with  his  officers  and  troops  attended  a 
service  in  the  Armenian  church  to  lament  over  the 
massacres  of  their  Christian  fellow-countrymen; 
and  how,  with  the  same  object,  crowds  of  Moslems 
in  Stamboul  went  to  the  Armenian  cemetery  to  pray 
and  place  flowers  upon  the  graves  of  those  who  had 
been  slaughtered  by  the  orders  of  the  Palace.  It 
was  the  same  in  Jerusalem,  where  the  various  Chris- 
tian sects  —  hitherto  kept  from  flying  at  each  other's 
throats  by  the  bayonets  of  the  Moslem  soldiery  — 
now  made  friends  and  joined  in  processions  with 
Mussulmans  and  Jews. 

In  Salonica,  the  head -quarters  of  the  revolution, 
there  were  scenes  of  intense  national  rejoicing  that 
astonished  European  observers.  The  Bulgarian, 
Greek,  and  other  leaders  of  bands,  the  Albanian  brig- 
and chiefs,  and  all  their  followings  of  ferocious  out- 
laws of  the  hills,  on  whose  heads  there  had  been  a 
210 


AFTER   THE    REVOLUTION 

price  for  years,  men  of  different  races  who  since 
boyhood  had  been  burning  each  other's  villages  and 
killing  each  other's  women,  flocked  into  the  town  to 
submit  to  the  Committee,  to  be  reconciled  to  one 
another,  and  to  become  the  friends  of  the  Moslem 
Turks.  Sandansky  himself,  the  king  of  the  moun- 
tains, the  most  formidable  of  the  Bulgarian  leaders 
of  bands,  came  in,  harangued  the  crowds  on  liberty, 
fraternity,  and  justice,  and  was  received  with  the 
greatest  enthusiasm.  All  these  fighting  men,  who 
had  spread  terror  through  Macedonia  and  Albania, 
clad  in  the  picturesque  dress  of  Europe's  wildest  and 
least  known  regions,  forgot  civil  war  and  blood 
feuds,  fraternised  with  each  other  and  with  the  Turk- 
ish soldiery,  marched  down  the  streets  roaring  the 
songs  of  liberty,  hobnobbed  together  over  cups  of 
coffee,  and  sometimes  mastic  and  raki,  in  the  cafes, 
embraced  each  other,  and  swore  to  be  brothers. 

I  was  in  Salonica  four  months  after  Turkey  had 
won  her  freedom,  and  the  national  jubilation  had  not 
yet  subsided ;  it  was  everywhere  exultation  and  good- 
fellowship.  Here,  in  this  city  of  many  races,  I  found 
myself  surrounded  by  a  refreshing  atmosphere  of  joy- 
ous delight  in  the  new-found  liberty.  From  the  win- 
dow of  my  hotel  I  looked  out  upon  the  busy  quay  and 
the  blue  sea  that  stretched  to  the  snows  of  Olympus. 
Along  this  quay  passes  most  of  the  life  of  the  town, 
and  at  frequent  intervals  something  happened  in 
front  of  me  to  remind  me  of  the  revolution  and  of 
the  keenness  of  the  people.  Now  it  was  a  proces- 
sion of  Christians  and  Mussulmans  fraternising  and 
211 


TURKEY 

singing  patriotic  songs  on  their  way  to  the  railway 
station  to  cheer  a  newly  elected  Deputy  who  was 
starting  for  Constantinople;  now  it  was  a  body  of 
troops  of  the  Macedonian  army  marching  through 
crowds  which  hailed  them  as  their  liberators;  now  a 
battalion  paraded  on  the  quay  to  be  exhorted  by 
some  general  before  embarking  for  Constantinople, 
for  at  that  time  the  Young  Turks  were  despatching 
more  of  their  faithful  troops  to  the  capital,  deter- 
mined to  be  in  readiness  should  the  forces  of  reaction 
reassert  themselves;  now  it  was  the  return  from  over 
the  water  of  some  exile  of  despotism  to  the  friends 
and  relatives  who  had  not  seen  him  for  years.  Thus 
one  morning  I  saw  a  flag-decorated  tender  come  off 
from  a  newly  arrived  steamer  and  land  on  the  stage 
in  front  of  me  the  Albanian  General,  Mehmed 
Pasha,  just  freed  from  a  long  exile  in  Baghdad;  he 
was  welcomed  with  shouts  and  clapping  of  hands  by 
the  large  crowd  of  Albanians  and  others  who  had 
come  to  escort  him  to  his  house. 

There  were  most  affecting  sights,  too,  to  be  seen 
in  those  early  days  of  liberty.  When  it  was  de- 
creed that  poHtical  prisoners  should  be  liberated, 
the  gates  of  the  prisons  were  thrown  open,  and  out 
poured,  in  their  thousands,  the  captives  of  the  Des- 
potism, to  be  received  by  crowds  of  deeply  moved 
sympathisers.  Many  of  these  unfortunate  men  had 
been  confined  for  years  in  cells  but  twelve  feet  square, 
and  came  out  into  fresh  air  and  sunshine  dazed  and 
weak  in  mind,  like  the  prisoner  of  the  Bastille  in 
Dickens'  famous  story,  to  be  led  home  by  relatives 
212 


AFTER    THE    REVOLUTION 

and  friends.  Here  one  would  see  outside  the  prison 
door  a  husband  and  wife  greet  each  other  with  tears 
of  joy  after  years  of  separation,  and  here  some  poor 
wretch,  with  spirit  long  since  tortured  out  of  him, 
weeping  miserably  as  he  wandered  to  and  fro  because 
no  dear  ones  had  come  to  meet  him,  and  he  realised 
that  they  had  died  while  he  was  in  captivity. 

It  was  pleasant  to  observe  the  confidence  and 
pride  of  the  population  in  the  Young  Turk  leaders, 
who  had  sacrificed  so  much  for  liberty  and  justice. 
The  patriotism  of  the  people  of  Salonica  was  then 
being  displayed  in  various  ways.  Large  sums  were 
being  collected  to  supply  comforts  to  the  troops  who 
throughout  the  winter  were  to  guard  the  northern 
frontier  against  any  attack  on  the  part  of  Turkey's 
enemies,  and  a  movement  had  also  been  started  in 
the  town,  which,  if  it  spreads  far  enough,  may  re- 
lieve the  Government  of  some  of  its  embarrassments. 
Officers  of  the  garrison  and  civil  servants  of  all 
grades,  reading  of  the  depleted  treasury  and  the 
heavy  burden  of  the  floating  debt,  were  abandoning 
their  claims  to  their  arrears  of  pay,  because,  as 
they  said,  their  country  needed  the  money.  Dep- 
uties, also,  were  refusing  to  accept  their  travelling 
allowances. 

For  one  who  knew  Turkey  under  the  old  regime  it 
was  very  interesting,  in  Constantinople,  to  observe 
the  outward  signs  of  the  great  change  which  had 
come  to  the  country,  and  to  note  the  attitude  of 
a  population  which  found  itself  suddenly  in  the 
enjoyment  of  the  widest  liberty.  In  most  countries, 
213 


TURKEY 

after  such  a  revolution,  the  people  would  have  been 
intoxicated  with  their  new  freedom;  the  forces  of 
disorder  would  have  been  let  loose;  there  would 
have  been,  for  a  while,  a  condition  approaching 
anarchy.  But  Constantinople  is  not  like  other 
European  capitals,  and  it  took  its  revolution  in  a 
sensible  fashion.  All  the  old  restrictions  had  been 
swept  away;  but  liberty  had  not  broken  into  license. 
Though  there  was  no  longer  a  censorship  of  printed 
matter,  the  Turkish  press  observed  a  dignified  mod- 
eration in  its  tone.  For  the  first  time  the  comic 
papers  were  free  to  publish  political  caricatures  in 
which  the  highest  personages  were  represented;  but 
if  one  might  judge  from  such  as  were  exhibited  in 
the  windows  of  the  newspaper  shops,  there  was 
nothing  offensive  in  these  somewhat  crude  pictures. 
Large  crowds  attended  pohtical  meetings  in  the 
capital;  but  there  was  no  disturbance  of  the  peace 
and  there  was  no  need  for  the  presence  of  the 
police  or  the  troops,  save  when  the  Greeks,  who  are 
never  happy  unless  they  have  some  real  or  imagi- 
nary grievance  to  make  a  noise  about,  made  demon- 
strations during  the  elections.  People  now  enjoyed 
the  right  to  form  themselves  into  associations,  but 
one  heard  of  no  anarchical  societies;  and  apparently 
the  first  result  of  this  new  privilege  was  that  the 
Turkish  temperance  reformers  availed  themselves  of 
it  to  estabhsh  a  total  abstinence  league  in  Csesarea. 
But,  as  might  be  expected,  the  interregnum  be- 
tween the  withdrawal  of  the  authority  of  the  old 
regime  with  its  severe  code  and  its  armies  of  spies, 
214 


AFTER    THE    REVOLUTION 

and  the  reorganisation  of  the  poHce  and  other  de- 
partments by  the  Young  Turks  was  taken  advan- 
tage of  to  some  extent  by  the  ignorant  and  lawless. 
At  the  beginning  of  the  revolution  all  prisoners,  in- 
cluding the  criminals,  were  released  from  the  gaols 
—  probably  because  it  was  impossible  in  many  cases 
to  ascertain  whether  the  offence  for  which  a  man 
had  been  confined  was  a  political  one  or  otherwise. 
The  restrictions  on  the  sale  and  carrying  of  fire-arms 
were  also  removed,  with  the  result  that  revolvers 
in  tens  of  thousands  poured  into  the  city  and 
were  at  once  bought  up.  A  large  proportion  of  the 
population  carried  revolvers  and  also  let  them  off; 
men  practised  with  them  in  the  streets;  accidents 
were  frequent;  and  in  some  quarters  of  the  city, 
especially  in  the  poorer  Greek  quarters,  it  was  not 
unusual  to  hear  a  regular  fusillade  going  on  at 
night,  generally  in  honour  of  something  or  other,  or 
to  spread  the  news  that  a  house  was  on  fire.  Rob- 
bery with  violence  in  the  streets  certainly  increased 
after  the  revolution.  But,  notwithstanding  all  this, 
it  could  not  be  fairly  said  that  Constantinople  was  a 
dangerous  place  to  walk  about  in  at  any  hour;  and 
indeed,  when  it  is  remembered  what  a  lot  of  cosmo- 
politan blackguardism  there  is  in  that  city  of  over  a 
million  inhabitants,  it  is  astonishing  that  there  was 
so  large  a  measure  of  security  for  life  and  property. 
It  was  natural,  too,  that  Turks  of  the  poorer  and 
more  ignorant  class  should  be  under  the  impression 
that  this  new  constitutional  liberty  meant  that  each 
man  was  free  to  do  what  he  liked  —  a  common  error 
215 


TURKEY 

which  before  long  was  eradicated  from  the  minds 
of  this  naturally  law-abiding  people  by  the  Young 
Turk  administration.  Thus  many  thought  that  the 
Constitution  wiped  out  the  liability  to  pay  any  pri- 
vate debts  incurred  before  the  revolution.  In  the 
country,  peasants  came  to  the  conclusion  that  they 
would  no  longer  be  called  upon  to  pay  taxes;  in 
the  towns  the  contrabandists  sold  their  smuggled 
tobacco  openly;  and  in  Constantinople  itself  the  pop- 
ular conception  of  liberty  produced  some  amusing 
results.  The  firewood  sellers  were  to  be  seen  calmly 
chopping  up  their  logs  in  the  middle  of  a  busy 
thoroughfare;  pavements  were  often  blocked  with 
the  wares  of  the  hawkers;  and  others  in  like  man- 
ner carried  on  their  avocations  in  public;  so  that 
the  narrow,  crowded  streets  and  the  Galata  Bridge, 
difficult  enough  to  traverse  in  the  days  of  the  old 
regime,  became  almost  impassable.  This  sums  up 
the  inconveniences  of  the  interregnum;  they  were 
wonderfully  few  and  trifling  when  one  bears  in  mind 
what  a  revolution  this  had  been. 

It  was,  of  course,  diflScult  for  the  Young  Turks  to 
reorganise  the  police  and  carry  out  administrative 
reforms  until  Parliament  met;  for  the  provisionary 
Ministry  was  naturally  disinclined  to  accept  much 
responsibility.  But  in  the  meanwhile,  though  there 
was  a  little  license  in  small  matters,  the  people  were 
made  to  understand  clearly  that  the  Committee 
would  stand  no  nonsense.  This  was  proved  at  the 
time  of  the  coaling  strike  in  Galata  not  long  after  the 
proclamation  of  the  Constitution.  The  men,  having 
216 


AFTER    THE    REVOLUTION 

struck  once  and  obtained  the  concession  of  their 
demands,  came  to  the  conclusion  that  under  the  new 
Constitution  they  were  free  to  extort  what  they 
pleased  and  terrorise  the  population;  so  they  struck 
again  for  a  prohibitive  rate  of  wage  which  would 
have  closed  the  port  to  commerce.  It  was  a  critical 
time:  the  Young  Turks  were  on  their  trial;  their 
movement  had  been  represented  by  their  enemies  as 
anarchical;  their  cause  would  be  lost  were  they  to 
fail  to  preserve  order  among  the  populace.  It  must 
be  remembered  that  this  was  not  only  the  question 
of  a  strike,  but  of  probable  rioting  of  so  serious  a 
nature  that  it  might  have  caused  European  inter- 
vention; for  these  labourers  who  coal  the  ships  at 
Galata  belong  .to  that  rabble  of  Kurds  and  other 
Mussulmans  of  the  lowest  class  which  is  only  too 
ready,  on  a  hint  from  the  Palace,  to  set  about  massa- 
cring Armenians  and  other  Christians. 

It  therefore  behooved  the  Young  Turks  to  prove 
that  they  could  rule  men,  and  they  did  so.  Two 
young  officers  rode  boldly,  unescorted,  into  the  mid- 
dle of  a  dangerous  crowd  of  the  strikers,  and  by  their 
firm  attitude  compelled  the  men  to  listen  to  them. 
First  they  tried  persuasion,  and  pointed  out  to  the 
strikers  that  by  their  action  they  were  prejudicing 
the  cause  of  freedom  which  they  had  so  loudly  ac- 
claimed but  a  few  days  before.  But  the  men  would 
not  be  persuaded  and  refused  to  go  back  to  their 
work.  Then  the  two  officers  changed  their  attitude. 
One,  drawing  his  revolver,  reminded  the  men  that 
under  the  old  regime  the  soldiers  would  have  been 
217 


TURKEY 

sent  to  throw  them  into  the  water  or  cast  them  into 
prison!  "And  as  you  are  conducting  yourselves  as 
friends  of  the  old  regime,  so  shall  you  be  treated," 
he  exclaimed.  "I  will  come  down  here  to-morrow 
and  ask  you  to  return  at  once  to  your  work.  I  will 
with  my  own  hand  shoot  down  the  first  man  who 
refuses  to  do  so,  and  the  rest  of  you  will  be  swept 
into  the  sea  or  into  prison."  The  next  morning  the 
two  officers  rode  to  the  quay  followed  by  a  body  of 
cavalry.  The  strikers  knew  that  what  had  been 
said  was  meant,  and  quietly  went  off  to  work,  and 
there  has  been  no  trouble  since  with  this  dangerous 
element  of  the  population. 

Indeed,  the  Committee,  by  its  firmness  and  justice, 
made  itself  loved  of  the  people,  who  at  last  came  to 
obey  its  orders  without  question.  Thus,  when  the 
Committee  enjoined  the  strict  boycott  of  Austrian 
trade,  while  at  the  same  time  forbidding  the  popu- 
lace to  molest  or  insult  Austrian  subjects,  a  wonder- 
ful thing  happened.  The  Austrians  were  able  to  go 
about  the  streets  in  perfect  safety;  and  the  Austrian 
shops  remained  open,  but  no  one  would  buy  of 
them,  however  cheaply  they  offered  their  goods. 
The  rough  and  ignorant  Kurds  who  do  the  coal- 
ing and  also  earn  their  living  as  lightermen  and  as 
porters  in  Galata,  and  the  poor  Jews  who  do  the 
same  work  in  Salonica,  to  a  man  enforced  the  boy- 
cott, though  it  meant  for  them  a  great  falling  off 
in  their  small  wages,  and  short  commons  for  their 
families.  Thus  no  Constantinople  boatman  would 
take  a  passenger  off  to  an  Austrian  steamer,  or 
218 


AFTER   THE    REVOLUTION 

carry  him  on  shore  from  it  when  he  reached  his 
destination.  These  steamers  had  to  use  their  own 
launches  for  the  embarkation  and  disembarkation 
of  passengers;  and  the  person  who  had  sailed  under 
this  tabooed  flag  sometimes  found  himself  in  a  sorry- 
plight  even  after  he  had  been  landed  on  a  Turkish 
quay,  no  porter  being  willing  to  carry  his  baggage. 
But  in  February  last,  so  soon  as  the  Governments  of 
Turkey  and  Austria  had  arranged  their  differences,  the 
Committee  of  Union  and  Progress  gave  the  word  that 
the  boycott  should  cease;  and  cease  it  did  within  an 
hour  of  this  order:  the  boatmen,  porters,  lightermen, 
and  dock  labourers  in  every  port  in  Turkey  coming 
out  as  one  man  to  work  again  for  the  Austrians. 

In  the  cities  and  in  the  countryside  all  seemed  to 
be  going  well  with  the  cause  of  the  Young  Turks;  but 
foreigners  who  observed  this  harmonious  opening  of 
the  new  regime  and  this  extraordinary  fraternisation 
of  men  of  different  races  and  creeds  hitherto  irrecon- 
cilable asked  themselves  how  long  this  reign  of  uni- 
versal friendship  could  last,  and  whether  this  falling 
into  each  other's  arms  of  Turks,  Armenians,  Bulgari- 
ans, and  others  was  due  to  any  sentiment  more  deep 
and  permanent  than  the  joyous  intoxication  caused 
by  this  unaccustomed  wine  of  liberty.  Like  other 
Englishmen  in  Turkey  at  that  time,  I  came  to  the 
conclusion  that  the  Young  Turks  were  quite  sincere; 
that  they  were  honestly  desirous  to  have  done  with 
internal  strife,  to  give  equality  to  all  the  elements  of 
the  population,  and  to  live  in  peace  and  friendship 
with  their  non-Moslem  fellow-countrymen.  The 
219 


TURKEY 

Armenians  and  Jews  have  proved  their  sincerity  by 
cooperating  loyally  with  the  Young  Turks  through- 
out the  parliamentary  elections  and  since.  Of  the 
Macedonian  Christians  the  bulk  had  become  weary 
of  bloodshed  and  the  internecine  conflict  that  had 
brought  nothing  but  suffering  and  ruin  to  the  pop- 
ulation; and  there  was  no  insincerity  about  the 
friendly  relationship  that  sprang  up  between  the 
sturdy  Bulgarian  leaders  of  fighting  bands  and  their 
former  foes,  the  Turkish  officers,  for  they  respected 
each  other.  The  civil  warfare  in  Macedonia  had 
been  deliberately  fomented  by  the  machinations  of 
the  Palace  gang,  to  whom  the  doctrine  of  divide  et 
impera  was  ideal  statesmanship,  and  to  the  intrigues 
of  Bulgaria,  Servia,  and  Greece.  There  is  no  reason 
why,  if  left  alone,  these  peoples  might  not  dwell 
together  in  peace.  A  short  time  since  a  mollah,  ad- 
dressing the  people,  said,  "Before  the  reign  of  Abdul 
Hamid  the  Moslem  and  Christian  mothers  used  to 
nurse  each  other's  children."  But  will  these  Mace- 
donian peoples  be  left  alone  by  Palace  agents  of 
reaction,  by  those  Great  Powers  whose  interests  are 
opposed  to  the  creation  of  a  strong  and  independent 
Turkey,  and  by  the  greedy  little  neighbouring  states.'^ 
It  is,  of  course,  too  much  to  hope  that  constitu- 
tional government  has  put  a  sudden  end  to  the  re- 
ligious and  racial  strife  in  Macedonia.  The  Greeks 
in  the  country  have  already  demonstrated  the  illu- 
siveness  of  such  an  expectation.  The  Greeks,  like 
the  others,  welcomed  the  Constitution  and  frater- 
nised with  their  Ottoman  fellow-countrymen.  Car- 
220 


AFTER    THE    REVOLUTION 

ried  away  by  the  enthusiasm  of  the  moment  they 
may  have  been  sincere  in  their  protestations  of 
brotherhood,  but  one  suspects  that  the  mental  res- 
ervations were  at  the  back  of  their  brains  all  the 
while.  If  one  misjudges  them  in  this,  then  their 
own  actions  and  the  utterances  of  their  press  belie 
them.  In  the  hour  of  national  jubilation  they  sup- 
plied the  one  discordant  note.  One  of  the  first  uses 
that  they  made  of  the  freedom  which  the  Young 
Turks  had  won  for  them  was  to  boycott  and  insult 
the  Bulgarians  in  Salonica,  and  the  news  came  that 
the  Greek  clergymen  in  the  interior  were  once  more 
persecuting  the  Bulgarian  exarchists,  and  had  drawn 
up  prescription  lists  of  the  leading  Bulgarians  with 
a  view  to  getting  them  assassinated.  The  Greek 
element  of  the  population,  as  might  be  expected,  was 
the  first  to  express  dissatisfaction  with  the  policy  and 
administration  of  the  Young  Turks.  The  intolerant 
and  often  mischievously  active  Greek  Patriarchate 
in  Constantinople,  which  denied  the  Bulgarians  the 
use  of  their  own  language,  supported  the  Greeks 
in  clamouring  for  much  more  than  was  their  due. 
Their  idea  of  Ottoman  citizenship,  so  far  as  them- 
selves were  concerned,  was  to  avoid  all  the  obliga- 
tions of  that  citizenship,  while  enjoying  all  the 
rights  conferred  by  it  and  retaining  all  their  special 
privileges  intact.  They  seemed  to  think  that  the 
government  of  Turkey  should  be  in  their  hands. 
During  the  elections  it  was  they  alone  who  pro- 
voked rioting  and  at  Smyrna  they  created  a  danger- 
ous disturbance  with  their  armed  mobs. 
221 


CHAPTER    XVI 

EUROPEAN   ASSISTANCE 

DURING  the  four  months'  interregnum  be- 
tween the  granting  of  the  Constitution  and 
the  opening  of  ParHament,  the  Committee 
of  Union  and  Progress  was  the  undisputed  ruler  of 
Turkey.  It  dictated  to  the  monarch  what  his  de- 
crees should  be,  it  moved  armies,  it  removed  and 
appointed  ministers,  governors  of  provinces,  and 
other  high  officials.  These  untried  young  men  who 
formed  the  Committee,  while  introducing  a  new 
order  of  things  and  protecting  their  country  against 
the  numerous  dangers  that  threatened  to  destroy 
the  newly  gained  liberty,  displayed  a  wisdom,  tact, 
moderation, '  shrewdness,  and  foresight  that  were 
astonishing  to  foreign  observers.  They  maintained 
order  with  firmness,  greatly  assisted  in  this  by  the 
dignified  self-control  and  patriotism  of  the  people 
themselves.  Though  they  and  thousands  of  others 
had  suffered  much  from  the  crueltj^  and  rapacity  of 
the  Despotism  and  its  parasites,  they  displayed  no 
vindictiveness;  they  punished  only  the  most  guilty 
of  these;  removed  only  those  who  showed  by  their 
actions  that  they  were  a  source  of  danger  to  the 
Constitution;  and  they  frankly  forgave  the  others. 
222 


EUROPEAN   ASSISTANCE 

The  relations  of  Turkey  with  foreign  Powers  were 
directed  by  them  with  a  tactful  and  resourceful 
statesmanship.  Their  mistakes  were  remarkably 
few. 

From  the  beginning  they  showed  their  fitness  to 
rule.  The  avowed  object  of  the  Young  Turks  had 
been  to  depose  the  Sultan,  and  when  they  offered 
him  the  alternative  of  acceptance  of  the  Constitu- 
tion or  abdication,  they  had  little  expectation  that 
he  would  submit  to  their  conditions.  But  when  the 
astute  Sultan  did  submit  in  a  very  graceful  manner, 
protesting  that  he  was  a  believer  in  a  constitutional 
form  of  government,  and  posing  as  if  he  and  not  the 
revolutionary  party  had  brought  the  boon  of  lib- 
erty to  his  subjects,  the  Young  Turks  showed  their 
statesmanship  by  as  graciously  accepting  the  situ- 
ation, and  became  once  more  the  loyal  subjects  of  a 
constitutional  monarch,  whose  cleverness  and  diplo- 
matic experience,  if  he  would  now  use  them  rightly, 
might  be  of  great  service  to  his  country  and  his 
people.  The  Sultan  is  the  Commander  of  the  Faith- 
ful to  millions  of  Mussulmans,  and  had  the  Com- 
mittee attempted  to  depose  him  at  that  critical  time 
a  long  civil  war  might  have  resulted.  So  Abdul 
Hamid  was  left  on  the  throne  of  Othman,  nominally 
ruling,  to  outward  seeming  popular  with  the  people, 
who  cheered  him  enthusiastically  whenever  he 
appeared  in  public.  But  the  Young  Turks  had  not 
forgotten  how  Abdul  Hamid,  in  1878,  destroyed  the 
Constitution  which  he  had  sworn  to  uphold,  so  that 
power  behind  the  throne,  the  Committee  of  Union 
223 


TURKEY 

and  Progress,  remained  ever  watchful,  as  the  strong 
guardian  of  the  people's  liberties. 

I  will  now  briefly  sum  up  the  results  of  the  Commit- 
tee's energetic  action  during  the  few  weeks  immedi- 
ately following  the  proclamation  of  the  Constitution. 
In  the  first  place  it  had  to  make  itself  as  strong  as 
possible  so  as  to  combat  the  reactionary  intrigues 
that  were  working  for  the  restoration  of  the  Des- 
potism. It  therefore  set  itself  to  establish  its  hold  on 
the  army,  to  obtain  the  sanction  of  the  Moslem  relig- 
ion, and  to  complete  the  pacification  of  Macedonia. 
It  took  the  precaution  of  removing  from  the  Second 
and  Third  Army  Corps  all  oflScers  suspected  of  reac- 
tionary views,  and  concentrated  the  bulk  of  the  troops 
loyal  to  the  Constitution  at  Adrianople,  within  strik- 
ing distance  of  the  capital,  where,  at  any  rate,  a  con- 
siderable portion  of  the  First  Army  Corps  and  the 
Sultan's  Praetorian  Guard  only  needed  the  word  from 
the  Palace  to  become  the  instrument  of  the  reaction- 
aries. Later  on  the  Committee  was  able  to  obtain 
the  removal  of  most  of  the  battalions  of  the  Impe- 
rial Guard  from  Constantinople  and  to  replace  them 
with  troops  from  Salonica,  thus  securing  the  Com- 
mittee's domination  in  the  capital. 

As  regards  the  religious  question,  the  work  of  the 
Young  Turks  was  made  easy  by  the  Sheikh-ul-Islam, 
who  —  so  soon  as  he  had  administered  to  the  Sultan 
the  oath  by  which  the  latter  swore  to  respect  the 
Constitution  —  proclaimed  to  the  faithful  that  con- 
stitutional government  was  not  contrary  to,  but 
was  in  accordance  with,  the  teaching  of  the  Koran; 
224 


EUROPEAN    ASSISTANCE 

he  rebuked  the  fanatics  who  were  preaching  against 
the  reforms  as  being  anti-reHgious,  and  saw  to  it 
that  the  mosques  were  not  used  as  centres  of  reac- 
tionary agitation  and  intrigue.  For  the  reaction- 
aries were  not  idle,  and,  in  European  as  well  as  in 
Asiatic  Turkey,  their  agents  —  often  ex-Palace  spies 
disguised  as  doctors  of  the  sacred  law  and  hodjas 
—  were  appealing  to  Moslem  bigotry  and  denoun- 
cing the  Constitution  as  the  invention  of  the  Evil 
One  himself.  To  counteract  this  mischievous  propa- 
ganda the  Committee  sent  out  its  own  missionaries 
all  over  the  country,  and  doctors  learned  in  the 
sacred  law  and  others  enlightened  the  people,  sup- 
porting their  arguments  with  quotations  from  the 
Koran,  and  in  many  cases  preaching  sermons  that 
had  been  written  for  this  purpose  by  the  Sheikh-ul- 
Islam  himself.  It  was  also  a  great  help  to  the  cause 
that  nearly  all  the  Turkish  press  supported  the 
Committee.  Indeed,  during  the  first  few  months 
of  the  new  regime,  a  paper  holding  the  unpopular 
opposite  opinions  would  have  had  but  few  readers. 

The  Committee,  having  army,  religion,  and  press 
on  its  side,  was  strong  enough  to  dominate  the 
Palace.  It  demanded  of  the  Sultan  the  signing  of 
Irade  after  Irade,  and  if  the  required  Imperial  decree 
was  not  immediately  forthcoming,  a  threat  that  the 
Adrianople  army  would  march  upon  Constantinople 
within  twenty-four  hours  always  produced  the  de- 
sired effect.  Thus,  within  a  few  days  after  the 
proclamation  of  the  Constitution,  Abdul  Hamid  had 
to  sign  Irades  by  virtue  of  which  he  granted  a  general 
225 


TURKEY 

amnesty,  the  release  of  all  political  prisoners,  the 
abolition  of  the  spy  system,  the  inviolability  of 
domicile,  a  free  press,  the  abolition  of  the  censor- 
ship, the  liberty  of  the  individual  to  travel  in  for- 
eign countries,  in  short,  all  the  privileges  enjoyed 
by  the  citizens  of  free  countries. 

Then  the  Sultan  was  compelled  to  dismiss  his 
favourites  and  principal  advisers,  including  his  hated 
secretary,  Izzet  Pasha,  his  old  Arab  astrologer, 
Abdul  Houda,  Tashin  Pasha,  and  Ismail  Pasha, 
the  founder  of  the  detestable  military  spy  system. 
The  Camarilla,  that  had  all  but  destroyed  Turkey, 
was  broken  up  and  scattered.  Izzet  and  several 
other  notorious  people  effected  their  escape  to  Eng- 
land and  elsewhere  —  fortunately  for  some  of  them, 
who,  had  they  remained,  would  probably  have  been 
torn  to  pieces  by  infuriated  mobs,  like  the  infamous 
Fehmi  Pasha.  But  the  Young  Turks,  as  I  have 
explained,  despite  the  intense  hatred  which  some  of 
them  must  have  nourished  against  the  cruel  oppres- 
sors and  traitors  to  their  country  who  had  acted  as 
the  instruments  of  the  Despotism,  refrained  from 
vengeance,  and  there  were  no  reprisals.  Penalties 
were  only  inflicted  where  the  country's  good  de- 
manded these.  Some  of  the  worst  ministers  of  the 
tyranny  were  imprisoned  in  the  War  Office,  or  con- 
fined in  their  own  houses  on  Prinkipo  Island  in  the 
Sea  of  Marmora,  where  many  rich  Turks  have  their 
summer  residences.  Some  have  undergone  their 
trial,  and.  have  been  compelled  to  disgorge  the  pub- 
lic moneys  which  they  had  embezzled.  For  the  rest 
226 


EUROPEAN    ASSISTANCE 

it  was  complete  amnesty,  and  when  the  Constanti- 
nople mobs  began  to  occupy  themselves  in  hunting 
down  men  recognised  to  have  been  spies  of  the 
Palace,  in  order  to  carry  them  off  to  the  prison  of 
the  War  Office,  the  Committee,  whose  word  had  to 
be  obeyed,  peremptorily  forbade  this  practice.  On 
the  other  hand,  if  any  man  took  advantage  of  this 
leniency  to  indulge  in  reactionary  intrigue,  sterner 
justice  was  administered.  Ismail  Pasha,  for  exam- 
ple, the  inventor  of  the  military  spy  system,  for 
very  good  reasons  was  shot  in  Constantinople  in 
December  last  by  a  young  officer. 

The  Committee  recognised  that  one  of  their  first 
duties  was  to  complete  the  pacification  of  Macedo- 
nia. They  successfully  accomplished  this  within 
a  very  short  time,  and  without  bloodshed.  The 
Greeks  alone  were  causing  any  difficulty;  but  the 
Greek  bishops,  clergy,  and  leaders  of  bands  came  to 
understand  that  the  Young  Turks  would  put  up 
with  no  nonsense  from  them,  and  that  the  sympathy 
of  Europe  would  not  be  with  them  if  they  resisted 
the  new  regime.  So  it  was  not  long  after  the  grant- 
ing of  the  Constitution  that  the  last  Greek  band 
came  in,  and  for  the  first  time  for  many  years  there 
was  peace  in  Macedonia.  The  British  Government, 
recognising  that  there  was  no  longer  any  need  for 
European  intervention  in  that  region,  withdrew 
from  the  arrangement  with  Russia  that  had  resulted 
from  the  Reval  meeting,  displaying  a  confidence  in 
the  Young  Turks  that  won  their  deep  gratitude. 
The  Young  Turks  had  a  very  keen  appreciation  of 
227 


TURKEY 

the  sympathy  that  was  displayed  for  them  by  the 
English.  To  EngHshmen  travelling  in  the  country, 
at  that  time,  the  sincere  and  hearty  friendship 
extended  to  them  by  the  Turkish  people  was  most 
gratifying  and  affecting. 

It  is  one  thing  to  make  a  revolution,  but  it  is 
quite   another   thing   to  undertake   to  govern   and 
administer   a   country    after  the   successful   revolu- 
tion has  swept  away   the  old   order.     The  Young 
Turks  showed  that  they  were  wise  enough  to  know 
their  own  limitations.     There  were  few  among  them 
who  had  any  knowledge  of  administration,  public 
finance,   and  diplomacy;  so  they  decided  to  make 
use  of  the  existing  machinery  of  government.     They 
got  rid  of  the  notoriously  corrupt  among  the  high 
officials,    but    retained    the    services    of    the    more 
capable    and    upright    of    the    ministers,    provincial 
governors,  and  others,  even  if  they  happened  to  be 
Pashas  of  the  old-school,  fanatical  Mussulmans  who 
hated  European  ways,   looked   askance   at   liberty, 
and   regarded   with   horror   the   scheme   for   giving 
equal  rights  to  Christians  and  Moslems.     But  these 
old  servants  of  the  State  were  kept  under  observa- 
tion, and  they  were  promptly  ousted  if  they  failed 
to  exercise  their  authority  on  the  lines  laid  down 
by   the   Constitution,   and  faithfully   to  hold   aloof 
from  reactionary  intrigue.     As  many  of  these  offi- 
cials were  honest  patriots  at  heart,  though  narrow- 
minded  in  their  views,  the  compromise  worked  well 
pending  the  training  of  a  new  school  of  administra- 
tors belonging  to  the  Young  Turk  party. 
228 


EUROPEAN    ASSISTANCE 

Thus  to  the  highest  office  of  all,  the  Grand  Viz- 
ierate,  men  of  long  administrative  experience  have 
been  appointed.  So  soon  as  the  Sultan  had  submitted 
to  the  will  of  the  people,  the  then  Grand  Vizier,  Ferid 
Pasha,  and  his  ministers  had  to  go,  for  they  were  too 
closely  connected  with  the  Hamidian  system  to  be 
trusted;  but  the  three  Grand  Viziers  who  have  so  far 
succeeded  Ferid  —  Said  Pasha,  Kiamil  Pasha,  and 
Hilmi  Pasha  —  have  all  taken  a  prominent  part  as 
servants  of  the  State  under  the  old  regime,  Said  and 
Hilmi  having  already  been  Grand  Viziers  on  several 
occasions.  Said  Pasha,  the  first  Grand  Vizier  under 
the  new  regime,  has  been  the  Sultan's  friend  and 
adviser  —  disgraced  at  intervals  like  the  rest  —  from 
the  commencement  of  the  reign.  First,  as  the  Sul- 
tan's secretary,  he  helped  his  master  to  overthrow 
Midhat  Pasha's  Constitution  and  to  destroy  the 
power  of  the  Sublime  Porte.  A  few  years  later,  as 
Grand  Vizier,  he  encouraged  the  Sultan  in  his  Pan- 
Islamic  dreams,  and  in  his  effort  to  deprive  the 
Christians  in  Turkey  of  their  ancient  privileges. 
He  had  proved  himself  an  upright  and  strong  man, 
and  in  his  old  age  he  had  modified  his  views  and 
recognised  the  evils  of  the  despotic  system  which 
he  had  helped  to  build  up,  but  he  was  scarcely  the 
right  sort  of  man  to  be  Prime  Minister  under  a 
constitutional  government,  and  it  is  not  astonishing 
that  his  term  of  office  lasted  for  but  a  few  days. 
His  first  mistake  was  in  the  execution  of  the  Impe- 
rial Irade  that  liberated  all  political  prisoners.  He 
took  it  upon  himself  to  free  all  the  criminals  as 
229 


TURKEY 

well,  letting  loose  upon  the  capital,  at  that  critical 
time,  a  crowd  of  murderers  and  robbers.  The  ever- 
watchful  Committee,  mindful  of  Said's  career,  sus- 
pected that  he  had  acted  thus  in  order  to  cause 
disorder  in  the  city,  and  so  injure  the  cause  of  the 
Young  Turkey  party  in  the  interest  of  the  reaction- 
aries. A  week  later  a  discovery  was  made  that 
precipitated  the  crisis.  Said,  while  drawing  up  a 
statement  of  the  principal  points  of  the  Constitu- 
tion, to  which  the  Sultan's  signature  was  to  be 
appended  in  token  of  adhesion,  had  altered  a  clause 
so  as  to  leave  the  appointment  of  the  Ministers  of 
War  and  Marine  to  the  Sultan,  instead  of  to  the 
Grand  Vizier,  as  had  been  laid  down  by  Midhat's 
Constitution.  To  leave  the  control  of  the  army  in 
the  hands  of  the  Sultan  was  to  place  more  trust  in 
his  word  than  the  Young  Turks  were  willing  to  do. 
So  the  Committee,  as  guardian  of  the  nation's  hard- 
won  liberty,  gave  the  word  that  has  to  be  obeyed. 
Said  had  to  resign,  and  his  Ministers  of  War  and 
Marine  were  at  once  placed  under  arrest,  as  a  pre- 
cautionary measure. 

On  August  6,  1908,  Kiamil  Pasha  was  appointed 
Grand  Vizier,  and  was  allowed  to  choose  his  own 
ministers;  of  the  members  of  Said's  Ministry  he 
retained  but  two,  the  Sheikh-ul-Islam  and  the  Min- 
ister of  Foreign  Affairs.  The  appointment  of  Kiamil 
was  universally  acclaimed.  Able,  firm,  and  patriotic, 
with  an  honourable  career  behind  him,  he  was  a 
'persona  grata  with  men  of  all  races  and  creeds,  and 
was  the  most  popular  statesman  in  Turkey.  He  had 
230 


EUROPEAN    ASSISTANCE 

always  been  the  steadfast  friend  of  the  Enghsh,  and 
has  many  friends  in  England.  The  gracious  tele- 
gram of  congratulation  which  King  Edward  VII 
sent  on  Kiamil's  appointment  produced  a  wonderful 
effect  and  did  much  to  tighten  the  cordial  relations 
between  the  two  countries. 

Kiamil  is  now  about  eighty-seven  years  of  age. 
Throughout  his  long  career  this  wise  old  man  has 
shown  himself  incorrupt  and  a  hater  of  corruption, 
a  lover  of  justice,  an  advocate  of  reform,  but  mod- 
erate, unwilling  to  force  radical  changes  on  a  peo- 
ple yet  unripe,  a  man  of  wide  knowledge,  free  from 
fanaticism  and  friendly  to  Europeans,  while  ready 
to  protect  his  country  against  the  undue  influence 
in  her  internal  affairs  which  has  been  exercised  with 
such  callous  selfishness,  to  their  own  advantage  and 
to  Turkey's  partial  ruin,  by  certain  Powers. 

Six  months  before  the  outbreak  of  the  revolution, 
Kiamil  was  holding  the  important  office  of  Vali  of 
the  province  of  Aidin,  of  which  Smyrna,  the  com- 
mercial centre  of  the  Levant,  is  the  capital.  Here 
for  thirteen  years  he  had  won  the  confidence  and 
affection  of  people  of  every  class  by  the  justice  and 
usefulness  of  his  administration.  But  the  Cama- 
rilla ever  hated  a  just  and  honest  man,  and  Pal- 
ace intrigue  arranged  for  his  destruction.  He  was 
falsely  accused  of  being  in  league  with  the  brigands 
of  Asia  Minor;  secret  instructions  were  given  for  his 
arrest,  and  a  steamer  was  sent  to  Smyrna  to  convey 
him  as  an  exile  to  the  island  of  Rhodes.  Under 
the  Despotism  exiles  died  quickly,  and  Captain 
231 


TURKEY 

von  Herbert,  from  whose  description  of  the  inci- 
dent in  the  Fortnightly  Review  I  have  taken  some 
of  my  facts,  himself  saw  the  canvas  sack  in  which 
it  was  intended  to  drop  Kiamil  overboard  during 
the  voyage  —  the  official  account  would  doubtless 
have  informed  the  world  that  the  Pasha  had  died 
of  sea-sickness.  But  fortunately  Kiamil  obtained 
knowledge  of  the  order  for  his  arrest,  and  on  Jan- 
uary 12  he  hurried  to  the  British  Consulate  at 
Smyrna,  and  there  took  refuge  under  the  British 
flag.  The  Consul  gladly  received  him,  and  got 
into  telegraphic  communication  with  London.  Sir 
Edward  Grey  commanded  that  British  protection 
should  be  extended  to  the  Pasha,  who  as  a  native 
of  Cyprus  was  technically  entitled  to  claim  it.  The 
Consulate  was  surrounded  by  police  and  spies,  the 
steamers  in  the  port  were  closely  watched;  but, 
despite  all  the  precautions  that  were  taken,  Kiamil 
was  able  to  escape  in  the  steam  launch  belonging 
to  the  well-known  banking  firm  of  the  Whittals, 
and  got  safely  on  board  a  German  liner  bound  for 
Stamboul.  The  steamer  duly  arrived  at  her  des- 
tination; the  British  Ambassador  guaranteed  that 
Kiamil  should  have  interviews  with  the  Sultan  at 
which  none  of  the  Camarilla  would  be  present; 
and  the  Pasha  landed  in  the  capital,  thus  placing 
himself  in  the  power  of  the  Despot;  which  was  a 
brave  thing  to  do  when  one  bears  in  mind  the  fate 
of  Midhat  and  others.  Kiamil  had  his  private  in- 
terviews with  Abdul  Hamid,  and  spoke  to  him 
boldly  concerning  the  evils  of  his  rule,  the  ruin 
232 


EUROPEAN    ASSISTANCE 

that  was  threatening  the  Ottoman  Empire,  and  the 
corruption  and  villainy  of  the  Sovereign's  entourage. 
But  the  Camarilla  still  remained  to  exercise  its  mis- 
chievous power  until  the  very  end,  though  appar- 
ently it  dared  not  interfere  with  one  still  nominally 
under  the  protection  of  England;  for  Kiamil  did 
not  disappear  mysteriously.  He  kept  outside  pub- 
lic affairs  and  dwelt  quietly  in  his  house  in  Con- 
stantinople —  no  doubt  under  the  close  surveillance 
of  spies  —  until  the  successful  revolution  brought 
him  once  again  to  the  head  of  affairs. 

During  the  first  six  months  of  the  new  regime,  that 
very  critical  period  when  the  Constitution  was  men- 
aced by  foes  within  and  without,  and  even  the  integ- 
rity of  the  Empire  was  at  stake  —  Kiamil,  as  Grand 
Vizier,  steered  the  ship  of  State  safely  through  many 
dangers,  and  his  shrewd  and  cautious  diplomacy 
greatly  strengthened  the  position  of  Turkey.  His 
ministers,  among  whom  were  one  Armenian  and 
one  Greek,  were  men  whose  characters  were  above 
reproach,  and  they  did  much  to  reform  the  machin- 
ery of  their  respective  departments.  Kiamil  stood 
his  country  in  good  stead,  and  Turkey  has  good 
reason  to  be  grateful  to  him;  but  he,  too,  after  six 
months  of  office,  had  to  resign,  though  with  no  loss 
of  honour  to  himself,  at  the  bidding  of  the  Com- 
mittee; and,  as  in  the  case  of  his  predecessor, 
Said  Pasha,  the  question  of  the  appointment  of  the 
Ministers  of  War  and  Marine  was  the  immediate 
cause  of  the  Cabinet  crisis  —  a  matter  concerning 
which  I  shall  say  more  in  another  chapter. 
233 


TURKEY 

Kiamil's  successor  to  the  Grand  Vizierate,  Hilmi 
Pasha,  is  another  man  of  the  old  regime.  I  have 
already  spoken  of  the  part  which  he  took  in  Salo- 
nica  during  the  last  days  of  the  Despotism,  when  the 
Committee  threatened  him  with  death.  Long  be- 
fore any  one  thought  that  there  was  a  chance  of 
Hilmi's  becoming  Grand  Vizier,  he  was  described 
to  me  as  being  an  honest  and  able  man  of  strong 
character,  with  a  good  record  behind  him,  somewhat 
fanatical,  and  with  little  sympathy  with  the  Chris- 
tian elements  of  the  population.  As  Inspector-Gen- 
eral in  Salonica  before  the  revolution,  he  obeyed 
the  instructions  given  to  him  by  the  Palace,  and 
obstructed  as  much  as  possible  the  reforms  in 
Macedonia  —  dictated  by  the  Great  Powers  —  which 
it  was  his  ostensible  duty  to  superintend.  But  to 
stand  in  the  way  of  European  intervention  was 
no  grave  fault  in  the  eyes  of  the  Young  Turks. 
Though  the  officer  of  the  Despotism,  Hilmi's  sym- 
pathies were  with  the  cause  of  the  reformers,  and 
he  is  now  trusted  by  them. 

From  the  beginning,  therefore,  the  Young  Turks 
have  placed  at  the  head  of  the  Government,  not 
advanced  reformers,  not  ambitious  men  out  of  their 
own  ranks,  but  experienced  men  of  the  old  regime, 
who,  so  far,  have  done  well,  and  have  been  able  on 
occasions  to  check  hasty  and  ill-considered  changes. 
In  other  respects,  too,  the  Young  Turks  have  mani- 
fested their  moderation  and  wise  opportunism.  For- 
eign intervention  is  the  thing  that  they  detest  and 
fear  most,  for  it  has  worked  nothing  but  ill  for  the 
234 


EUROPEAN    ASSISTANCE 

Empire;  but  these  men  are  free  from  any  anti- 
European  feeling,  and  while  anxious,  as  soon  as 
possible,  to  get  rid  of  the  Capitulations  and  other 
fetters  which  the  Powers  have  placed  upon  Otto- 
man independence,  they  welcome  European  assist- 
ance to  place  their  house  in  order.  Thus  it  was  at 
the  request  of  the  Turkish  Government  that  France 
lent  Turkey  the  aid  of  the  great  financial  author- 
ity, M.  Laurent,  to  assist  in  the  reorganisation  of 
the  finances  of  the  country  and  the  establishment 
of  less  wasteful  methods  of  tax  collection,  and  that 
England  lent  the  services  of  Mr.  Crawford  to  con- 
duct the  reorganisation  of  the  Customs.  Turkey 
has  also  asked  for,  and  has  obtained,  the  services 
of  an  English  admiral  and  several  naval  oflScers  to 
help  her  recreate  the  navy  which  was  destroyed 
during  the  Hamidian  regime,  and  Baron  von  der 
Goltz,  who  has  already  done  so  much  good  for  the 
Turkish  army,  is  to  be  entrusted  with  powers  that 
will  enable  him  to  bring  it  up  to  a  high  state  of 
efficiency.  The  Young  Turks,  anxious  to  develop 
the  great  natural  resources  of  their  country,  have 
also  borrowed  from  France  excellent  engineers  to 
superintend  the  construction  of  irrigation  works  and 
the  execution  of  other  useful  projects. 

While  what  is  best  of  the  old  regime  still  supplies 
the  higher  officialdom,  nearly  all  the  men  belonging 
to  the  lower  grades  of  the  Civil  Service,  as  I  have 
already  pointed  out,  had  become  adherents  of  the 
Committee  of  Union  and  Progress  some  time  before 
the  outbreak  of  the  revolution.  Most  of  these  men, 
235 


TURKEY 

under  the  corrupt  system  that  then  prevailed,  had 
to  supplement  their  miserable  pay,  generally  in 
arrears,  by  taking  bakshish  and  by  robbing  the  State 
in  other  ways.  This  general  impurity  of  the  oflfi- 
cialdom  was  loathsome  to  many  of  those  who  were 
compelled  to  follow  the  almost  universal  practice  in 
order  to  keep  themselves  and  their  families  alive. 
Minor  oflficials  knew  that  what  was  wrung  from  the 
people  in  the  form  of  taxation  was  not  spent  for 
the  country's  good,  but  was  for  the  most  part 
appropriated  by  the  Palace  gang,  and  it  was  but 
natural  that  they  helped  themselves  to  a  share. 
But  the  Turks,  in  their  dealings  between  man  and 
man,  are  among  the  most  honest  of  people,  and  pub- 
lic sentiment  regarding  official  corruption  has  been 
undergoing  a  remarkable  change  since  the  revolu- 
tion. The  newspapers  preached  public  purity,  and 
the  servants  of  the  State  began  to  realise  that  for 
the  future  the  misappropriation  of  public  moneys 
would  not  be  at  the  cost  of  the  Palace  gang  as 
heretofore,  but  at  the  cost  of  their  beloved  coun- 
try itself,  which  was  in  sore  need  of  money  to  fur- 
ther its  regeneration  and  to  strengthen  its  defences 
against  the  formidable  enemies  that  threatened  its 
integrity.  I  have  told  the  story  of  the  patriotic 
civil  servants  in  Salonica,  who  abandoned  their 
claims  to  arrears  of  pay  in  view  of  their  country's 
necessities;  I  am  assured  that  the  same  sense  of 
civic  virtue  has  led  to  a  remarkable  diminution  of 
the  corrupt  practices  in  the  various  public  depart- 
ments. I  have  heard  it  maintained  that  the  Turks 
236 


EUROPEAN    ASSISTANCE 

cannot  change  their  nature,  and  that  Turkish  admin- 
istration always  has  been,  and  always  will  be,  cor- 
rupt, whether  the  form  of  government  be  despotic 
or  constitutional.  One  might  as  fairly  have  argued 
thus  about  England's  administration  in  India,  or  in 
the  British  Isles  themselves,  but  a  few  generations 
ago.  A  people  who,  like  the  Turks,  are  honest  as 
individuals,  and  intensely  patriotic,  are  likely  to 
arrive  at  the  right  moral  sense  in  a  matter  like  this. 
The  Japanese,  who,  while  being  as  patriotic  as  the 
Turks,  are  not  remarkable  for  commercial  probity, 
regard  it  as  far  more  criminal  to  embezzle  the  coun- 
try's funds  than  to  cheat  the  individual;  but  Japan 
is  the  only  country  which  has  attained  this  high 
ethical  standard. 


237 


CHAPTER  XVn 

MUTINOUS  PALACE  GUARDS 

IT  is  not  within  the  scope  of  this  work  to  deal 
with  the  foreign  complications  which  followed 
the  Turkish  revolution.  Suffice  it  to  say  that 
the  annexation  of  Bosnia  and  Herzegovina  in  the 
beginning  of  October  had  the  effect  of  striking 
what  might  well  have  proved  to  be  a  deadly  blow 
at  the  party  of  reform  in  Turkey.  It  was  the  old 
story  of  an  ambitious  Christian  Power,  fearing  lest 
a  reformed  Turkey  might  become  a  strong  Turkey, 
treacherously  obstructing  her  path  of  progress. 
Austria's  action  gave  the  reactionaries  their  last 
chance  of  bringing  back  the  old  order  of  things, 
and  they  fully  availed  themselves  of  it.  "These 
Young  Turks,"  they  were  able  to  say  to  the  people, 
"used  the  preservation  of  the  integrity  of  the  Em- 
pire as  their  watchword  when  they  rebelled  against 
the  Padisha;  and  lo!  the  first  thing  that  happens 
after  they  get  the  power  is  the  complete  separation 
from  Turkey  of  Bosnia  and  Herzegovina,  a  declara- 
tion of  independence  on  the  part  of  the  Bulgarians 
and  a  separatist  movement  in  Crete!"  These  argu- 
ments produced  a  considerable  effect  upon  the 
ignorant,  who  blamed  the  reformers  for  what  had 
238 


MUTINOUS    PALACE    GUARDS 

happened  and  clamoured  for  rulers  strong  enough 
to  protect  Turkey  against  her  foreign  foes. 

The  reactionaries  were  wholly  unscrupulous  in 
their  methods  and  were  prepared  to  plunge  their 
country  into  a  disastrous  war  if  by  so  doing  they 
could  restore  the  Despotism.  Ex-spies  and  other 
reactionaries  made  demonstrations  in  favour  of  war 
with  x\ustria  in  some  of  the  mosques  of  the  cap- 
ital; they  posted  placards  on  the  walls  of  the  city 
by  night,  calling  upon  Mussulmans  to  massacre 
the  Christians;  and  everywhere  they  attempted  to 
foment  disorder  so  as  to  discredit  the  Young  Turk 
rule  as  leading  to  a  state  of  anarchy.  But  the 
Young  Turks  knew  that  the  preservation  of  peace 
abroad  and  order  at  home  was  of  vital  importance, 
and  they  displayed  a  firmness  that  soon  made  their 
position  stronger   than  it  had  ever  been. 

In  the  first  place,  so  as  to  overawe  the  reaction- 
ary party  and  the  untrustworthy  Yildiz  soldiery, 
they  garrisoned  the  capital  with  a  large  force  of 
Macedonian  troops  loyal  to  the  Constitution,  who 
could  be  relied  upon  to  suppress  a  rising  in  the 
firmest  manner.  Loyal  troops  were  also  employed 
to  police  the  city;  all  reactionary  assemblies  were 
stopped  and  the  agitators  were  cast  into  prison. 

The  machinations  of  the  reactionaries,  however, 
produced  some  effect.  For  a  considerable  time 
Constantinople  was  in  an  overwrought  and  ner- 
vous condition,  and  various  incidents  inspired  the 
Christian  inhabitants  with  a  great  dread  of  im- 
pending peril.  These  Greeks,  Armenians,  Levan- 
239 


TURKEY 

tines,  and  others,  timid  of  nature  after  their  ages 
of  oppression,  suffered  from  an  epidemic  of  panic, 
acute  fits  of  which  were  daily  brought  about  by 
very  small  causes.  Thus,  one  day  at  about  this 
time,  as  I  was  walking  through  the  Grand  Bazaar 
in  Stamboul  I  witnessed  the  following  incident 
which  showed  the  jumpy  condition  of  the  popula- 
tion. A  man,  revolver  in  hand,  chased  by  soldiers 
and  others,  suddenly  appeared,  running  at  full  speed 
through  the  crowded  lanes  of  the  Bazaar.  This  was 
quite  enough  to  start  a  panic.  Like  wildfire  spread 
the  report  that  the  Moslem  mob,  stirred  up  by  the 
Softas,  had  at  last  commenced  the  massacre  of  the 
Christians.  The  scene  was  indeed  an  extraordinary 
one.  Men  and  women  turned  pallid,  wrung  their 
hands,  wept  and  howled,  and  there  was  a  general 
stampede  for  the  shelter  of  the  houses.  People  ran 
into  their  own  or  other  shops,  doors  were  bolted, 
bars  were  drawn,  shutters  were  closed,  and  in  a 
trice  what  had  been  a  busy  mart  had  become 
empty  and  silent  as  a  city  of  the  dead,  and  re- 
mained so  until  Sami  Pasha,  the  Minister  of  Police, 
came  down  to  reassure  the  frightened  Greek  and 
Armenian  traders.  It  turned  out  that  the  origin  of 
this  widespread  panic  was  merely  the  endeavouring 
of  a  vender  of  contrabrand  tobacco  to  escape  from 
the  soldiers  who  had  been  sent  to  arrest  him. 

On  another  morning  the  terrifying  rumour  spread 

from  end  to  end  of  the  city  that  the  Second  Division 

of  the  Imperial  Guard,  stationed  at  the  Tashkishla 

Barracks,  outside  the  Yildiz  Palace,  had  mutinied 

240 


MUTINOUS    PALACE    GUARDS 

under  the  leadership  of  the  reactionaries,  and  were 
engaged  in  a  sanguinary  struggle  with  the  Constitu- 
tional troops  from  Salonica.  The  facts  had  been 
grossly  exaggerated  but  the  incident  was  signifi- 
cant enough.  This  Second  Division  of  the  Imperial 
Guard,  about  seven  thousand  strong,  including  the 
Sultan's  faithful  Albanian  Body-guard,  had  for  its 
post  the  neighbourhood  of  the  Yildiz  Palace.  These 
troops,  oflScered  by  men  risen  from  their  own  ranks, 
who  protected  the  person  of  the  Sultan,  had  been 
ever  pampered  and  spoilt;  their  discipline  was  very 
slack,  and  their  loyalty  to  the  Constitution  was 
doubtful.  Consequently  the  Minister  of  War,  who 
by  virtue  of  a  recent  Irade  was  empowered  for  the 
first  time  to  despatch  the  regiments  of  this  favoured 
Division  to  any  part  of  the  Empire,  decided  to  re- 
move by  degrees  from  Constantinople  some  of  the 
battalions  of  the  Division  and  to  replace  them  with 
loyal,  well-disciplined  troops  from  Salonica.  So  in 
the  first  place  two  battalions  of  the  Yildiz  Guards, 
to  the  great  disgust  of  the  men,  were  ordered  to 
those  disagreeable  stations,  the  Hedjaz  and  Yemen, 
in  distant  Arabia,  where  they  could  work  no  mis- 
chief. Eighty-eight  of  the  men,  who  had  but  three 
months  more  to  serve  with  the  colours,  claimed 
their  immediate  discharge  and  clamoured  to  be  sent 
to  their  homes.  As  this  request  was  not  granted 
they  mutinied  and,  coming  out  of  their  barracks, 
fired  upon  the  Salonica  troops  who  had  come  to 
replace  them.  The  fire  was  returned,  three  ser- 
geants among  the  mutineers  were  shot  dead,  others 
241 


TURKEY 

were  wounded,  and  the  remainder  were  captured. 
The  Commandant  of  the  Guards  Corps  then  called 
out  several  regiments  of  the  Guards,  formed  them 
in  a  hollow  square,  and  addressed  them  briefly,  ex- 
plaining to  them  that  the  Government,  while  deter- 
mined to  improve  the  lot  of  all  Turkish  soldiers, 
would  punish  severely  any  act  of  indiscipline.  The 
prisoners,  many  of  whom  begged  for  mercy,  crying 
out  that  they  had  been  led  astray  by  others,  were 
brought  within  the  square,  and  the  Commandant 
told  them  that  they  would  be  tried  by  court-mar- 
tial. The  ringleaders  were  afterwards  shot.  The 
troops  of  the  Imperial  Guard  on  numerous  previous 
occasions  had  displayed  a  similar  mutinous  spirit, 
but  the  timid  authorities  had  always  overlooked 
the  most  flagrant  breaches  of  discipline  and  yielded 
to  the  clamour  of  the  men.  The  prompt  and  firm 
action  taken  by  the  Minister  of  War  on  this  occa- 
sion cut  short  what  might  have  developed  into  a 
serious  revolt,  and  reassured  the  timid  civilian  pop- 
ulation. It  was  recognised  that  this  was  no  time  for 
those  in  power  to  display  weakness. 

The  Palace  troops  had  thus  been  taught  a  useful 
lesson,  and  the  Committee  of  Union  and  Progress 
still  further  secured  its  position  by  seeing  to  it  that 
the  bulk  of  the  Imperial  Guards  battalions  were 
scattered  in  sections  over  different  parts  of  the 
Empire.  Moreover,  the  General  commanding  the 
Second  Division,  a  friend  of  the  Sultan's,  was  forced 
to  retire  from  the  army,  and  the  command  was  given 
to  an  officer  known  to  be  loyal  to  the  Constitution. 
242 


MUTINOUS    PALACE    GUARDS 

Steps  were  also  taken  to  introduce  a  better  class  of 
officers  into  the  remaining  Yildiz  regiments.  The 
Committee  showed  that  it  was  determined  to  be 
the  master.  The  General  commanding  the  Cavalry- 
Division  of  Guards  and  several  other  officers  were 
imprisoned  for  agitating  against  the  proposed  super- 
session of  officers  who  had  been  promoted  from  the 
ranks  by  those  who  had  passed  through  the  military 
academies;  and  other  officers  of  the  Yildiz  garrison 
were  severely  punished  for  attempting  to  cause  dis- 
affection among  the  rank  and  file  in  the  interests  of 
the  reactionary  party.  The  Committee  won  the 
admiration  and  confidence  of  all  right-thinking  men 
by  the  way  in  which  it  exercised  its  great  power  for 
the  country's  good. 

It  was  very  interesting  to  be  in  Constantinople 
during  that  critical  time  and  to  watch  the  replace- 
ment of  the  old  order  of  things  by  the  new,  to  see 
constitutional  government  developing  itself  before 
one's  eyes  within  the  space  of  days  instead  of  cen- 
turies. Everywhere  one  could  contemplate  the  old 
and  new  facing  each  other  in  strong  contrast,  and  to 
attend,  as  I  did  on  the  Friday  following  the  mili- 
tary mutiny,  the  Selamlik  in  the  morning  and  visit 
the  head-quarters  of  the  Committee  of  Union  and 
Progress  in  the  afternoon,  was  to  rush,  as  it  were,  on 
Mr.  Wells'  "time  machine,"  from  the  Middle  Ages 
to  the  twentieth  century. 

Every  tourist  who  visits  Constantinople  has  wit- 
nessed the  Selamlik,  the  Sultan's  procession  from 
the  Yildiz  Palace  on  each  Friday  to  worship  at  the 
243 


TURKEY 

Hamidieh  Mosque,  and  the  ceremony  has  been 
described  many  times.  This  particular  Friday's 
ceremony  had  a  special  interest,  and  the  spectacle 
was  one  to  make  one  think.  I  joined  the  throng  of 
foreigners  at  the  gates  of  the  Yildiz,  and  awaited  the 
passing  of  the  procession.  Here,  from  the  steep  hill, 
there  is  a  beautiful  view  which  forms  a  wonderful 
setting  to  the  solemn  function.  In  the  immediate 
foreground,  but  a  couple  of  hundred  yards  or  so  dis- 
tant, is  the  white  mosque  itself;  to  the  right  stretch 
the  heights  on  which  Pera  stands;  below  is  the 
gleaming  Bosphorus;  and  beyond  it  are  the  misty 
mountains  of  Asia,  forming  a  noble  background  to 
the  scene.  There  was  much  of  interest  to  look  upon 
as  one  awaited  the  coming  out  of  the  Sultan — among 
other  things  the  gathering  of  the  picturesque  Moslem 
crowd;  the  arrival  of  successive  detachments  of  troops 
with  bands  playing  and  colours  flying  in  the  breeze; 
and  the  massing  of  the  troops  along  the  short  line 
of  route  and  on  the  open  space  beyond.  A  greater 
number  of  troops  than  usual,  about  eight  thousand 
men,  were  brought  out  on  this  occasion,  and  after 
the  ceremony  they  were  paraded  and  marched  to  the 
Palace,  at  a  window  of  which  the  Sultan  stood  and 
acknowledged  their  salute.  I  watched  the  troops  of 
all  arms  march  up  to  the  Palace,  the  tough-looking, 
red-fezzed,  blue-coated  Infantry  of  the  Line,  Artil- 
lery, Cavalry,  Marines,  and  Engineers.  There  were 
troops,  too,  from  every  part  of  the  Ottoman  Empire, 
including  the  fierce  and  faithful  Albanians  of  the 
Praetorian  Guard,  in  white  uniforms  fashioned  after 
244 


MUTINOUS    PALACE    GUARDS 

their  national  dress,  with  wicked-looking  yataghans 
slung  across  their  waists ;  and  Arabian  troops  in  queer 
uniforms  and  green  turbans;  and  they  looked  like 
what  they  indeed  are,  as  formidable  as  any  soldiery 
in  the  world  when  properly  trained  and  led.  It  was 
a  sign  of  the  times  that  the  first  regimental  band  to 
arrive  on  the  scene  began  to  play,  not  the  National 
Anthem,  but  the  "March  of  Liberty,''  which  had 
been  composed  specially  for  the  troops  of  the  new 
regime^  and  the  sound  of  it  must  have  been  scarcely 
pleasing  to  some  ears  within  the  Palace  walls. 

At  last  the  muezzin  from  the  minaret  of  the  mosque 
chanted  the  call  of  the  faithful  to  prayer,  and  the 
procession,  passing  through  the  Palace  gates,  slowly 
proceeded  down  the  steep  road,  between  the  troops, 
to  the  entrance  of  the  mosque,  the  Sultan's  ap- 
proach being  announced  by  the  blowing  of  a  trum- 
pet and  the  shouting  by  the  soldiers  "  Padishahim 
chok  yasha!'*  ("long  Hve  the  Emperor!").  I  need 
not  describe  the  well-known  scene;  there  were,  as 
usual,  the  officers  in  gorgeous  uniforms;  high  officials 
of  the  Palace  and  the  Government,  among  whom 
one  recognised  some  few  of  the  old  regime,  but 
none  of  the  notorious  instruments  of  oppression  and 
cruelty,  or  the  corrupt  advisers  who  had  ruined 
their  country  (for,  happily,  all  these  had  gone,  some 
having  fled  from  the  people's  wrath  to  England, 
others  living  under  close  watch  on  the  island  of 
Prinkipo,  and  others  prisoners  in  the  Seraskeriat) ; 
the  led  saddle  horses;  the  white- veiled  Mohamme- 
dan ladies  of  the  Palace  in  close  carriages;  the 
245 


TURKEY 

ungainly  black  eunuchs  walking  with  folded  arms,  not 
so  insolent  as  of  old,  and  no  doubt  fearful  as  to 
what  might  happen  to  them  under  the  new  regime 
which  had  done  away  with  their  mischievous  influ- 
ence; and  lastly,  escorted  by  mounted  troops,  in  an 
open  carriage,  with  the  Grand  Vizier  facing  him, 
came  he  who  is  the  head  of  the  Moslem  world,  the 
nominal  ruler  of  the  Ottoman  Empire,  the  Sultan 
Abdul  Hamid  himself,  his  face  imperturbable  as  he 
acknowledged  the  salute  and  trained  acclamation 
of  his  legionaries.  But  it  was  a  procession  in  which 
one  seemed  to  be  looking  at  the  shadow  of  that 
from  which  Turkey  has  now  delivered  herself;  one 
felt  that  all  this  pomp  was  but  the  empty  shell  of 
that  which  is  now  a  dead  thing. 

Then,  in  the  afternoon,  I  visited  the  head-quar- 
ters of  the  Young  Turk  party  in  Stamboul.  Having 
crossed  the  Golden  Horn  by  the  Galata  Bridge,  and 
traversed  the  intricate  lanes  of  the  Grand  Bazaar, 
I  came  to  a  quiet  street  of  somewhat  mean  appear- 
ance, and  in  an  unpretentious  house,  almost  bare 
of  furniture,  I  found  the  temporary  meeting-place 
of  the  Committee  of  Union  and  Progress,  the  vir- 
tual Government  of  the  Ottoman  Empire.  Here 
there  was  no  pomp  or  ceremony;  one  might  have 
been  in  the  offices  of  some  struggling  architect  in 
a  third-rate  London  suburb.  There  was  a  room 
in  which  members  of  the  organisation  met  in  an 
informal  manner  to  discuss  their  plans,  and  to  put 
forth  those  suggestions  which  had  to  be  obeyed  by 
the  ministers.  There  were  other  rooms  in  which 
246 


MUTINOUS    PALACE    GUARDS 

men  awaited  their  turn  to  have  interviews  with 
members  of  the  Committee,  and  chambers  in  which 
one  might  carry  on  long  conversations,  as  I  did  on 
several  occasions,  with  courteous  Young  Turks 
ready  to  impart  all  such  information  regarding  this 
wonderful  movement  as  it  was  not  deemed  inex- 
pedient to  divulge. 

I  found  these  young  Mussulmans  who  had  freed 
Turkey  quite  unlike  the  conventional  conspirators 
and  revolutionaries.  These  were  well-educated  and 
thoughtful  men,  keen  and  energetic,  with  the  light 
of  resolve  and  great  hope  in  their  eyes  betraying  the 
enthusiasm  which  lay  under  their  Turkish  reserve 
and  phlegm.  The  more  I  saw  of  the  Young  Turks 
the  more  I  was  impressed  by  their  patriotism,  their 
manhness,  and  their  sincerity.  There  are  naturally 
some  over-confident  Chauvinists  in  the  party,  but 
the  bulk  are  men  of  shrewd  common  sense,  as  has 
been  made  manifest  to  the  world  by  their  modera- 
tion after  victory,  and  their  tactful  methods  of  con- 
ducting the  government  of  a  disorganised  country, 
and  maintaining  order  throughout  the  Empire  in  the 
face  of  tremendous  difficulties  of  every  description. 

All  the  members  of  the  Committee  of  Union  and 
Progress  with  whom  I  came  into  contact,  whether 
in  the  capital  or  in  Salofiica,  whether  soldiers  or 
civilians,  were  enlightened  men,  most  of  whom  had 
travelled  and  studied  in  Western  Europe,  and  had 
assimilated  what  is  best  of  Western  culture.  Thus 
among  the  civilian  members  of  the  Committee  are 
men  who  would  gain  distinction  in  any  country,  such 
247 


TURKEY 

as  Ahmed  Riza,  for  many  years  the  chief  organiser 
of  the  Young  Turk  movement  in  Paris,  the  President 
of  the  Chamber;  Djavid  Bey,  the  professor;  Aassim 
Bey,  the  strenuous  editor  of  the  Shura-i-Ummet, 
the  oflScial  organ  of  the  Committee,  who  took  a 
leading  part  in  preparing  the  revolution  in  Salonica; 
Rahmi  Bey,  a  wealthy  Salonican  who  was  long  in 
exile,  a  descendant  of  the  Saracen  warrior  who  con- 
quered Thessalonica  from  the  Latins  five  hundred 
years  ago.  The  military  members  of  the  Committee, 
officers  of  the  etat-major,  have  passed  through  the 
military  schools,  or  have  been  educated  in  France 
or  Germany,  and  most  of  them,  like  the  civilian 
members,  speak  foreign  languages.  Among  them 
are  distinguished  men  like  Colonel  Faik  Bey,  and 
Enver  Bey,  now  the  popular  hero  of  the  Turks. 
Another  member  of  the  Committee  is  Turkey's 
ablest  artillery  officer.  General  Hassan  Riza  Pasha, 
an  old  friend  of  mine  in  a  way,  for  I  discovered,  on 
talking  to  him,  that  he  was  with  the  Epirus  army 
during  the  Greek  war,  and  that  it  was  under  the 
uncomfortable  fire  of  his  guns  that  I  remained  with 
the  eccentric,  but  harmless,  Greek  army  on  the 
heights  of  Arta,  and  on  one  occasion  narrowly 
escaped  being  killed  by  one  of  his  shells. 


248 


CHAPTER    XVIII 

PREPARING   FOR   SELF-RULE 

DURING  the  interregnum  the  most  important 
task  that  had  to  be  undertaken  by  the 
Committee  of  Union  and  Progress,  and  one 
that  caused  it  a  good  deal  of  anxiety  for  a  while, 
was  the  preparation  of  the  country  for  the  coming 
general  election  of  the  members  of  Turkey's  new 
Parliament.  It  could  not  but  be  a  dangerous  exper- 
iment thus  suddenly  to  give  self-governing  insti- 
tutions to  the  ignorant  Ottoman  masses,  who  had 
endured  thirty  years  of  the  worst  of  despotisms.  It 
would  naturally  take  long  to  make  the  peasantry 
understand  that  under  the  new  order  of  things  tax- 
ation would  not  be  as  it  was  under  the  old,  that  the 
money  supplied  by  the  people  would  be  spent  in  re- 
organising and  developing  the  country  to  their  own 
great  benefit.  All  that  they  knew  of  taxation  was 
that  it  had  been  wrung  from  them  to  enrich  the  rul- 
ing clique,  that  Constantinople  swallowed  up  the 
huge  sums  which  were  collected  in  every  part  of  the 
Empire,  and  that  little  had  been  done  for  the  people. 
It  was  difficult  to  convince  them  that  taxation  could 
possibly  be  for  their  own  good.  To  quote  from  an 
article  which  appeared  at  the  time  in  a  Constanti- 
249 


TURKEY 

nople  paper:  "Persuasion  in  this  case  will  be  of  no 
avail.  Acts  must  precede  arguments.  Let  works  of 
public  utility,  roads,  railways,  harbours,  irrigation 
canals,  be  undertaken  at  once.  Let  the  police  be 
organised.  Let  the  troops  in  the  provinces  receive 
their  pay  and  be  given  their  proper  clothing  and 
equipment  as  in  the  capital."  If  they  beheld  these 
changes,  so  advantageous  to  themselves,  the  people 
would  no  doubt  gradually  lose  their  profound  distrust 
of  everything  connected  with  the  administration  of 
the  State  and  realise  that  the  sacrifices  entailed  by 
taxation  might  mean  the  return  to  the  taxpayers, 
in  the  form  of  various  benefits,  of  ten-fold  what  they 
had  contributed.  When  the  elections  did  take  place 
it  was  found  that  great  numbers  of  the  poorer  and 
more  ignorant  peasants,  though  as  taxpayers  enti- 
tled to  vote,  refrained  from  exercising  their  right, 
for  they  suspected  the  needful  registration  of  being 
in  some  way  connected  with  the  exaction  of  further 
taxation. 

In  the  meanwhile,  people,  prejudiced  against  all 
outward  form  of  government  and  wholly  ignorant 
of  the  elements  of  economics,  suddenly  found  them- 
selves the  free  electors  of  a  representative  assembly. 
Many  people  looked  forward  to  the  opening  of  the 
Parliament  with  grave  misgivings.  It  is  rankest  her- 
esy in  these  days  to  give  utterance  to  such  a  senti- 
ment, but  one  could  not  help  thinking  last  autumn, 
when  the  result  of  the  elections  was  still  in  doubt, 
that  it  might  have  been  better  to  have  continued 
the  rule  of  the  country  for  some  time  longer  through 
250 


PREPARING  FOR  SELF-RULE 

a  Ministry  selected  by  the  Young  Turk  oligarchy, 
and  not  to  have  conferred  self-governing  institutions 
on  the  people  until  these  had  been  to  some  extent 
educated  by  the  object-lessons  of  good  government 
presented  to  them  —  the  suppression  of  corruption, 
the  eflSciency  of  public  departments,  the  bringing  of 
prosperity  to  the  wasted  land,  the  wise  expenditure 
on  public  works. 

But  it  had  been  decreed  that  the  Parliament 
should  meet  as  soon  as  possible,  so  the  Committee 
of  Union  and  Progress  set  itself  to  teach  the  elec- 
torate the  duties  of  citizenship,  to  explain  to  them 
what  constitutional  government  meant,  and  to  em- 
ploy its  wide-reaching  organisation  to  secure  so 
strong  a  representation  of  its  nominees  in  the  Lower 
House  as  to  give  the  Committee  the  control  of 
affairs.  The  Young  Turks  were  too  wise  to  be  over- 
confident. They  realised  the  difficulties  and  dangers 
before  them.  They  knew  that  the  reactionaries  were 
intriguing  everywhere  and  would  seize  their  chance 
when  they  got  it.  The  Young  Turks  remained  on 
their  guard,  determined  that  the  liberty  so  hardly 
won  should  not  be  wrested  from  Turkey  as  it  was 
in  1878,  and  that  if  the  Turkish  Parhament  failed 
as  the  Russian  Duma  failed,  it  should  not  be  to 
make  way  for  the  return  of  the  Despotism. 

It  was  recognised  that,  far  from  losing  its  raison 
d'etre  with  the  opening  of  Parliament,  the  Young 
Turk  organisation  would  be  needed  more  than  ever 
for  the  protection  of  the  country,  and  would  have 
to  continue  its  existence,  with  the  army  behind  it  as 
251 


TURKEY 

heretofore,  for  a  long  while  to  come.  The  Committee 
of  Union  and  Progress  therefore  held  a  Congress  in 
Salonica  in  October,  at  which  measures  were  taken 
to  strengthen  and  effect  the  closer  knitting  together 
of  the  Young  Turk  party.  It  was  arranged  that  all 
the  Deputies  in  the  Turkish  Parliament  who  were 
nominees  of  the  Committee  should  pledge  them- 
selves to  support  in  its  entirety  the  programme  laid 
down  by  the  Committee.  Arrangements  were  made 
for  the  establishment  of  close  relations  between  the 
Committee  and  the  Army.  The  secret  Central  Com- 
mittee, the  names  of  whose  members  are  unknown 
to  the  outer  world,  was  re-elected  at  the  Congress, 
but  it  was  decided  that  it  should  no  longer  have  its 
head-quarters  in  Salonica  and  that  it  should  not  hold 
its  meetings  in  Constantinople.  It  was  to  have  no 
known  or  fixed  habitation.  The  Young  Turks,  there- 
fore, apparently  deemed  it  more  necessary  than  ever 
that  strict  secrecy  should  be  observed  as  to  who 
their  real  leaders  were.  By  this  time  the  Commit- 
tee had  largely  extended  its  membership,  its  sworn 
associates  numbering  about  seventy  thousand  —  all 
that  was  best  of  the  Ottoman  manhood. 

As  the  result  of  the  electoral  campaign  conducted 
by  the  Committee  of  Union  and  Progress  their 
nominees  are  in  an  overwhelming  majority  in  the 
Turkish  House  of  Commons,  voting  as  one  man  on 
all  important  questions.  The  Constitution  arranged 
for  the  creation  of  a  Senate,  or  Second  Chamber, 
composed  of  notables  selected  by  the  Sultan.  The 
Committee  saw  to  it  that  the  Senate  should  not 
252 


PREPARING    FOR    SELF-RULE 

become  the  head-quarters  of  reaction.  It  presented 
a  Hst  of  names  to  the  Sultan,  who  was  pleased  to 
appoint  as  Senators  the  persons  thus  suggested  to 
him.  A  parliament,  the  bulk  of  whose  members 
are  sworn  to  obey  the  bidding  of  a  secret  society, 
may  not  be  an  ideal  form  of  government;  but  there 
can  be  little  doubt  that  it  was  the  best  possible  one 
for  Turkey  during  the  early  days  of  the  new  regime, 
when  it  was  necessary  for  the  very  existence  of  the 
Empire  that  one  strong  and  patriotic  party  should 
dominate  the  House  and  present  a  united  front  to 
foreign  foe  and  home  reactionary.  It  was  no  time 
for  parliamentary  dissensions,  for  the  raising  of  deh- 
cate  questions  concerning  the  future  position  of  the 
various  races,  with  their  conflicting  aspirations,  or 
for  the  discussion  of  the  schemes  of  thorough-going 
decentralisation  advocated  by  the  too  broad-minded 
theorists  who  would  grant  home  rule  all  round  to 
Turkey's  various  peoples. 

The  Turks  were  novices  at  political  combination, 
whereas  the  Greeks  were  skilled  in  electioneering 
trickery  of  every  sort  and  were  determined  to  obtain 
as  large  an  electioneering  representation  as  possible 
in  Parliament.  The  Greeks  undoubtedly  entertained 
the  opinion  that,  representing  the  brains  and  com- 
mercial wealth  of  Turkey,  they  should  take  a  leading 
place,  above  all  the  other  elements  of  the  popula- 
tion, in  the  administration  of  the  country.  The 
Committee  of  Union  and  Progress  was  not  of  this 
opinion,  and  under  its  guidance  the  votes  of  the 
Mussulmans,  largely  supported  by  the  Armenian 
253 


TURKEY 

and  Jewish  vote,  secured  the  ascendency  of  the 
ruHng  race  in  Parhament. 

It  is  a  fortunate  thing  for  Turkey  that  the  peo- 
ple who  conquered  this  land  will  still  maintain  their 
political  supremacy  under  the  Constitution.  The  sit- 
uation would  be  a  dangerous  one,  indeed,  were  the 
Greek  vote  ever  to  swamp  that  of  the  Mussulmans  at 
the  elections.  Another  revolution,  not  of  so  blood- 
less a  character  as  the  last,  would  be  the  probable 
result.  It  is  obvious  that  for  the  Caliph,  the  head 
of  the  Mussulman  faith,  to  be  under  the  direction  of 
a  Christian  Government  would  be  intolerable  to  the 
millions  of  fanatical  Moslem  subjects  of  the  Porte 
in  Asia,  who  already  regard  the  Constitution  with 
great  suspicion.  It  is  absurd  to  suppose,  too,  that 
the  Young  Turk  party  and  the  Mussulman  Turkish 
army  have  overthrown  despotism  only  to  hand  over 
the  rule  of  the  country  to  what,  for  centuries,  have 
been  the  subject  races.  The  Turks  hold  the  incon- 
sistent, but  perfectly  justifiable,  point  of  view  that 
all  Ottomans,  of  whatever  race  and  creed,  shall  have 
equal  rights,  but  that  the  predominance  of  the  Mus- 
sulman Turks  must  be  safeguarded.  This  may  not 
be  logic,  but  it  is  common  sense. 

The  opinions  and  misgivings  of  the  Young  Turks, 
while  the  elections  were  in  progress,  were  expressed 
as  follows,  in  an  article  which  appeared  in  one  of 
their  organs  in  the  capital:  "The  Mussulman  ele- 
ment is  the  one  which,  above  all  others,  works  to 
maintain  the  Empire's  safety  and  integrity.  The 
other  elements  have,  more  or  less,  other  ends  in 
254 


PREPARING    FOR    SELF-RULE 

view.  If  we  now  deliver  the  government  of  the 
country  into  the  hands  of  the  non-Mussulmans, 
who  can  suppose  that  these  would  have  Ottoman 
interests  as  their  one  aim?  It  is  evident,  therefore, 
that  under  present  conditions,  if  we  wish  to  safe- 
guard our  national  existence,  we  must  keep  the  gov- 
ernment in  our  own  hands,  and  be  on  the  watch  lest 
the  other  elements  snatch  it  from  us.  But  it  must 
not  be  gathered  from  the  opinions  which  we  have 
thus  expressed  that  we  intend  to  refuse  to  place  the 
other  elements  on  the  same  footing  of  equality  as 
the  Mussulman  element  —  that  we  wish  to  deprive 
them  of  their  political  rights.  To  make  sure  of  a 
majority  in  the  Parliament  is  a  question  of  life  and 
death  for  the  Turks.  It  will  not  do  for  us  to  take 
it  for  granted  that  the  Turks  are  certain  to  obtain  a 
majority  in  Parliament  because  they  compose  a  ma- 
jority of  the  population.  We  state  it  with  regret, 
that  the  bulk  of  the  Mussulmans,  not  realising  the 
importance  of  the  elections,  have  not  even  taken 
the  trouble  to  vote,  and  that  those  who  have  voted 
have  not  come  to  an  understanding  with  each  other, 
and  have,  therefore,  failed  to  send  an  adequate 
number  of  Deputies  to  the  Chamber.  It  would  be 
interesting  to  know  what  line  of  action  we  ought  to 
adopt  if  we  found  ourselves  in  a  Chamber  contain- 
ing a  majority  of  non-Mussulman  Deputies.  The 
laws  made  by  such  a  Chamber  would  not  favour 
the  dominant  element.  Let  us  suppose,  for  exam- 
ple, that  the  Greeks  were  in  a  strong  majority  in 
the  Ottoman  Parliament,  and  that  the  question  of 
^55 


TURKEY 

the  annexation  of  Crete  to  Greece  was  under  discus- 
sion. How  many  Greek  Deputies  would  disapprove 
of  that  annexation?  And  again,  if  the  Bulgarians 
had  the  majority,  what  would  happen  to  Macedo- 
nia? The  Turks,  who  conquered  the  country  at  the 
cost  of  a  great  sacrifice,  have  proved  that,  with 
regard  to  the  position  of  the  other  elements,  they 
are  guided  by  the  sentiments  of  equality,  justice, 
and  liberty,  but  they  will  not  tolerate  the  formation 
of  a  State  within  a  State.  Our  non-Mussulman 
compatriots,  who  desire  to  live  as  brothers  with  the 
Mussulmans,  must  calmly  examine  their  hearts  and 
consciences.  Let  them  have  the  courage  to  tear 
from  their  hearts  all  ideas  —  if  they  entertain  such 
—  which  are  prejudicial  to  the  interests  of  the  Turk- 
ish rule,  and  let  them,  without  fear,  throw  them- 
selves into  our  arms.  They  have  nothing  to  fear 
from  us;  all  that  is  asked  of  them  is  that  they  make 
us  believe  in  their  sincerity.  But,  whatever  may 
be  said  in  this  country,  it  is  the  Turks  who  com- 
pose, and  who  will  always  compose,  the  dominant 
element." 

The  Committee,  therefore,  set  itself  diligently  to 
work  to  secure  the  ascendency  of  its  adherents  in 
Parliament.  It  selected  as  its  nominees  the  best 
men  it  could  find,  who  commanded  the  respect  of 
the  people,  for  the  most  part  professional  men  in 
towns,  and  landed  proprietors  in  the  country;  and 
it  undertook  the  education  of  the  voters  in  the 
exercise  of  their  new  privileges.  It  sent  missionaries 
throughout  the  country  to  preach  the  cause  of  the 
256 


PREPARING    FOR    SELF-RULE 

Constitution,  and  to  confute  the  arguments  of  the 
reactionary  agents.  It  founded  schools  of  pohtical 
instruction  in  the  villages.  Its  lecturers  addressed 
attentive  crowds  in  city  streets.  Even  the  theatres 
were  used  for  the  dissemination  of  political  doctrines, 
and  both  in  Constantinople  and  Salonica  I  attended 
plays  written  with  the  object  of  showing  the  horrors 
of  the  Despotism  and  the  blessings  of  liberty  under 
constitutional  government. 

One  night  I  visited  a  Turkish  theatre  in  Pera, 
where  a  company  of  amateurs  —  Young  Turks,  sev- 
eral of  whom  were  officers  in  the  army,  whilst  the 
others  had  either  recently  been  released  from  prison 
or  had  returned  from  exile  —  presented  a  patriotic 
play  entitled  "The  Awakening  of  Turkey."  In  this 
remarkable  play,  though  fictitious  names  appeared 
on  the  programme,  nearly  all  the  characters  imper- 
sonated were  well-known  men,  creatures  of  the  Pal- 
ace, reformers,  and  others,  and  whenever  an  actor 
appeared  on  the  scene  so  good  was  his  make-up 
that  the  audience  at  once  knew  who  was  intended, 
and  received  him  with  warm  applause  or  cries  and 
groans  of  execration,  as  the  case  might  be.  The 
play  opened  with  a  sort  of  prologue  —  "the  Pasha's 
dream."  The  curtain  rose  and  disclosed  a  room  in 
which  a  white-bearded  old  man  was  sleeping  in  an 
arm-chair.  He  was  recognised  by  the  audience  as  a 
well-known  victim  of  the  Despotism.  The  Pasha, 
as  he  slept,  dreamt  a  vivid  dream,  which  now  un- 
folded itself  before  us.  The  back  of  the  room  faded 
away,  and  we  looked  into  the  interior  of  a  luxuriously 
257 


TURKEY 

furnished  chamber  in  the  Yildiz  Palace.  And  here, 
in  dumb  show,  were  enacted  before  us  some  of  the 
evil  doings  of  the  Camarilla  that  is  no  more.  There 
we  saw,  made  up  to  the  life,  the  Sultan's  hated  secre- 
tary, Izzet  Pasha,  and  to  judge  from  his  reception 
by  the  audience  he  is  safer  in  his  English  house 
than  he  would  be  in  Constantinople.  There,  too, 
were  the  Sultan's  aged  astrologer,  Abdul  Houda,  and 
other  Court  favourites.  Spies  came  in  with  lists  of 
denounced  reformers,  and  orders  for  execution  or 
for  the  oubliette  were  signed.  The  tyrants  bethought 
themselves  to  seek  recreation  in  the  intervals  of 
their  cruel  business,  so  the  hideous  and  fawning 
black  eunuchs  were  ordered  to  bring  in  a  troupe  of 
beautiful  Armenian  dancing  girls.  A  young  Turk  in 
chains  was  led  in,  tortures  were  applied  to  him  in 
vain  to  wring  from  him  the  betrayal  of  his  associ- 
ates; so  he  was  put  to  death  there  and  then  by  the 
Court  executioner,  in  the  presence  of  his  wife,  who 
was  on  her  knees  imploring  for  mercy,  and  frantic 
with  grief,  while  the  callous  Court  favourites,  with 
scarce  a  side  glance  at  the  bloody  deed,  continued 
to  gaze  with  gloating  eyes  at  the  dance  of  the  slave 
girls.  Then  a  messenger  came  in  with  news  that 
was  evidently  of  importance.  He  opened  the  box 
which  he  had  brought  with  him,  and  to  the  joy  of 
the  courtiers  drew  out  the  bleeding  head  of  the 
murdered  Midhat  Pasha. 

Then  the  vision  faded  away,  and  the  Pasha  awoke 
from   his  nightmare.     It  had  deeply   affected   him, 
and  in  a  long  speech  he  announced  his  intention  of 
258 


PREPARING    FOR    SELF-RULE 

fleeing  from  Turkey  to  Paris  in  order  that  he  might 
help  to  organise  the  revolution  by  which  Turkey 
must  be  saved.  His  son  entered,  was  delighted  to 
hear  the  Pasha's  resolve,  and  agreed  to  accompany 
him.  The  scenes  of  the  play  itself  were  laid  in 
Paris.  We  heard  plots  being  arranged  by  spies  in 
the  Turkish  Embassy  in  the  French  capital,  and  saw 
them  circumvented  by  an  attache  of  the  Embassy, 
who  happened  to  be  a  secret  adherent  of  the  Young 
Turk  party.  We  witnessed  the  deathbed  of  the 
Pasha,  who  had  abandoned  wife  and  property  for  the 
sake  of  his  country,  and  who,  in  a  long  speech,  urged 
his  son  to  persevere  in  the  good  work.  We  were 
taken  to  a  Mussulman  burial  ground,  where  an  elo- 
quent funeral  oration  was  delivered  over  the  remains 
of  the  dead  patriot,  and  we  witnessed  his  apotheosis 
when  angels  bore  him  upwards  to  Paradise.  The 
final  scene  represented  a  somewhat  extraordinary 
entertainment  at  the  Turkish  Embassy,  where  a  good 
deal  of  champagne  was  being  drunk;  suddenly,  in 
rushed  a  newsboy  carrying  a  poster  announcing  the 
proclamation  of  the  Constitution;  and  the  curtain 
dropped  on  the  group  of  revelling  spies,  now  over- 
whelmed with  fear  and  consternation. 

It  was  a  gloomy  play,  mainly  made  up  of  long  and 
earnest  monologues,  lit  up  occasionally  with  flashes 
of  grim  humour,  but  its  effect  upon  the  audience 
was  extraordinary.  The  actors  who  represented 
the  friends  of  liberty  delivered,  with  great  oratorical 
power,  eloquent  speeches,  in  which  they  preached  the 
righteousness  of  the  cause,  and  the  beauty  of  sacri- 
259 


TURKEY 

fice  of  self  for  the  fatherland.  They  swayed  the 
audience  as  they  willed;  for  these  were  not  merely 
clever  actors  who  felt  their  parts,  but  men  who  had 
done,  and  were  still  doing,  in  real  life,  the  things 
that  they  represented  upon  the  stage.  The  audi- 
ence hung  upon  their  words,  warmly  applauded  the 
patriotic  sentiments,  and  showed  their  detestation  of 
the  tyrants  and  their  pity  for  the  sufferers.  There 
were  tears  in  the  eyes  of  many  men  present,  to 
whom,  no  doubt,  the  play  recalled  bitter  memories. 
The  audience  was  mostly  exclusively  composed  of 
Mussulman  Turks  —  soldiers,  theological  students, 
turbanned  hod j as,  and  others.  In  the  higher-priced 
seats  were  many  oflBcers  of  the  army  and  navy,  and 
two  near  relatives  of  the  Sultan  were  in  the  boxes. 


260 


CHAPTER  XIX 

A  STRONG  ARMY  NEEDED 

FOR  some  time  before  the  elections  for  the 
Turkish  ParHament  took  place,  the  Com- 
mittee of  Union  and  Progress  was  at  great 
pains  to  explain  its  programme  as  fully  and  clearly 
as  was  possible  to  the  people.  From  the  articles 
which  appeared  in  the  newspapers  of  the  party  and 
the  conversations  which  could  be  had  without  diffi- 
culty with  members  of  the  Committee  one  was  able 
to  form  a  fairly  complete  conception  of  the  principal 
aims  of  the  reformers.  The  title  of  the  Committee, 
*' Union  and  Progress,"  well  sums  up  these  aims. 
Turkey  is  to  be  made  strong  and  free,  respected 
by  the  nations,  first  by  union  — by  the  union  of 
all  natives  of  Turkey  of  whatsoever  creed  or  race. 
They  are  to  enjoy  equal  rights.  No  advantage  is 
to  be  given  to  any  religion.  The  Young  Turks 
announced  that  this  tolerance  was  not  to  be  merely 
a  passive  one,  that  where  Christian  populations  had 
no  churches  or  schools  these  would  be  provided  for 
them  at  the  expense  of  the  State,  and  that  in  these 
schools  the  teaching  of  such  national  languages  as 
Albanian  or  Servian  would  be  permitted.  In  the 
second  place,  Turkey  is  to  be  made  strong  by  prog- 
261 


TURKEY 

ress  —  the  regeneration  of  a  people  whose  energies 
have  been  sterilised  by  a  long  oppression,  the  res- 
toration of  prosperity  to  an  impoverished  land.  The 
people  are  to  be  educated,  and  the  vast  resources 
of  the  country  are  to  be  developed. 

Instead  of  dreaming  of  impossible  social  reforms, 
the  Young  Turks  have  very  practical  ends  in  view. 
In  the  first  place,  they  recognise  that  it  is  essential 
to  the  existence  of  Turkey  that  she  should  possess 
a  strong  army,  as  otherwise  her  very  progress  may 
prove  her  ruin,  arousing  the  cupidity  of  those  of  her 
neighbours  who  have  already  divided  among  them 
so  much  of  her  rich  land.  So  Turkey,  having  no 
desire  to  sow  that  others  may  reap,  is  determined  to 
create  an  army  equal  in  strength  to  that  of  any 
of  the  great  military  Powers.  To  possess  such 
an  army  the  Turks  are  prepared  to  make  great  sacri- 
fices. The  exemption  from  conscription  enjoyed  by 
certain  cities  and  districts  will  be  withdrawn  grad- 
ually. The  Moslems  will  no  longer  bear  the  whole 
burden  of  the  conscription;  for  the  future  the  Chris- 
tians also  will  have  to  serve  in  the  army,  and  the 
view  of  the  Turkish  Generals  with  whom  I  have 
spoken  is  that  there  should  be  no  formation  of 
exclusively  Moslem  or  exclusively  Christian  regi- 
ments, but  that  men  of  different  creeds  should  be 
mingled  in  each  unit.  The  Greeks,  who  want  all 
the  rights  of  Ottoman  citizenship  without  its  obli- 
gations, entertain  a  strong  objection  to  service  in 
the  Turkish  army. 

But  Turkey  cannot  maintain  a  great  army  without 


A    STRONG    ARMY    NEEDED 

money,  and  money  she  can  only  obtain  by  develop- 
ing her  vast  mineral  and  agricultural  resources  with 
foreign  capital.  Under  the  old  regime.  Court  in- 
trigue made  all  industrial  enterprise  precarious,  and 
foreign  capitalists  were  chary  of  ventures  in  a  coun- 
try where  rights  of  property  were  so  insecure.  But 
by  means  of  the  good  government  which  the  Young 
Turks  are  introducing  they  hope  to  gain  the  confi- 
dence of  foreign  investors.  They  realise  that,  to 
quote  from  a  Constantinople  paper,  "  Turkey  can- 
not have  reform  without  money  or  money  without 
reform;  foreign  capital  she  nmst  have  in  order  to 
carry  out  the  reforms,  and  foreign  capital  will  not 
come  in  until  there  is  a  satisfactory  assurance  that 
the  reforms  will  be  carried  out,  that  the  money  pro- 
vided will  be  spent  properly  and  not  be  stolen  and 
wasted  as  it  was  under  the  old  regime ^ 

The  programme  of  the  more  necessary  reforms 
was  set  forth  with  some  detail  by  the  press  of  the 
Young  Turk  party  during  its  electioneering  cam- 
paign, and  the  abolition  of  the  old  corrupt  sys- 
tem of  administration,  whereby  bribery  and  bakshish 
had  to  supplement  the  inadequate  pay  —  often  years 
in  arrears  —  of  the  servants  of  the  State,  was  of 
course  insisted  upon.  The  following  are  among  the 
more  important  of  the  projects  recommended  by 
the  Young  Turk  party:  (1)  The  construction  of 
many  thousands  of  miles  of  roads  to  open  out  the 
country;  at  the  present  time  some  of  the  railway 
lines  are  of  very  little  service,  as  roads  to  bring  to 
them  the  produce  of  the  neighbouring  country  at 
263 


TURKEY 

moderate  cost  are  wanting.  (2)  The  construction 
of  four  thousand  kilometres  of  railway;  certain  rail- 
ways are  urgently  needed  if  the  enormous  mineral 
wealth  of  the  country  is  to  be  developed  by  for- 
eign capital;  the  difficulties  of  transport  now  pro- 
hibit mining  enterprise  in  most  richly  mineralised 
districts.  (3)  The  bringing  under  cultivation  again 
of  the  formerly  productive  arable  districts  in  the 
Vilayets  of  Salonica,  Smyrna,  etc.  (4)  The  construc- 
tion of  commercial  ports  at  Dedeaghatch,  Samsoun, 
Mersina,  etc.  (5)  The  construction  of  irrigation 
works  in  Mesopotamia  and  elsewhere;  there  are 
thousands  of  square  miles  of  uncultivated  land  in 
Turkey  only  awaiting  irrigation  to  make  them  ex- 
ceedingly productive.  (6)  The  engaging  of  French 
engineers  to  make  navigable  waterways  of  the  Var- 
dar,  Maritza,  Boyana,  and  Kizil-Irmak.  (7)  The 
foundation  of  an  engineering  college,  coupled  with 
a  scheme  for  sending  students  who  have  gained 
diplomas  to  Europe  to  gain  practical  knowledge. 
(8)  The  formation  of  navigation,  commercial,  and 
industrial  companies,  with  the  object  of  forwarding 
the  prosperity  of  the  country. 

It  is  outside  the  scope  of  this  book  to  deal  with 
the  complicated  question  of  Turkey's  financial  posi- 
tion, which,  according  to  the  experts,  is  not  so  un- 
satisfactory as  was  at  first  supposed;  but  there  are, 
of  course,  immense  difficulties  to  be  overcome  before 
Turkey  can  see  herself  fairly  started  on  the  road  of 
progress.  The  late  regime  burdened  her  with  obli- 
gations which  stand  in  the  way  of  all  attempts  at 
264 


A    STRONG    ARMY    NEEDED 

reform;  but  these  obstacles  might  be  removed  by 
the  co-operation  of  the  Powers  interested.  When- 
ever some  measure  for  Turkey's  good  is  proposed 
there  seems  to  jump  up  some  capitulation  or  some 
privileged  interest  of  one  Power  or  another  to  block 
it  hopelessly.  The  Baghdad  Railway  concession,  for 
example,  with  its  kilometric  guarantee,  is  like  a 
mill-stone  round  the  neck  of  Turkey. 

The  Young  Turks  recognized  that  if  their  country 
was  to  be  regenerated  and  to  take  its  place  among 
the  nations  the  revenues  would  have  to  be  greatly 
increased  with  the  least  possible  delay.  As  to  ways 
and  means,  the  follow  ing  may  be  taken  as  summing 
up  some  of  the  views  which  I  heard  expressed  by 
Turks  and  others  whose  opinion  carries  weight.  In 
the  first  place  (in  view  of  the  attitude  taken  by 
the  more  ignorant  Parliamentary  electors,  who  main- 
tained that  under  the  Constitution  no  taxes  could 
be  demanded  of  them)  it  may  be  impolitic  to  make 
any  increase  in  the  direct  taxation  of  the  country. 
The  people,  however,  should  be  compelled  to  pay 
such  direct  taxes  as  are  now  in  force  until  some 
better  system  has  been  devised,  and  the  persons  — 
and  they  are  numerous  —  who  by  exercise  of  undue 
influence  or  otherwise  have  succeeded  in  avoiding 
the  payment  of  their  taxes  should  be  forced  to  con- 
tribute like  the  others. 

It  is  held,  however,  that  whereas  the  direct  taxes 
should  be  left  as  they  are,  reforms  being  made  in  the 
method  of  collection,  several  new  sources  of  reve- 
nue could  be  tapped  in  the  way  of  indirect  taxation. 
^65 


TURKEY 

In  the  first  place,  all  the  existing  methods  of  raising 
indirect  taxation  should  be  maintained  in  their  in- 
tegrity, while  the  revenue  derived  from  them  should 
be  largely  increased  by  administrative  reforms.  For 
example,  it  has  been  calculated  that  the  reorganisa- 
tion of  the  Turkish  Customs  under  the  advice  of 
the  English  expert,  Mr.  Crawford,  will  increase  the 
revenue  derived  from  the  Customs  by  twenty -five  per 
cent.  Thinking  men  in  Turkey  recommend,  not 
only  the  maintenance  of  the  existing  Customs  tariff 
and  other  methods  of  indirect  taxation,  but  also  the 
imposition  of  still  heavier  taxation  of  this  description 
until  Turkey  has  been  extricated  from  her  present 
financial  difficulties;  and  they  also  favour  the  crea- 
tion of  several  new  monopolies,  to  be  preceded, 
naturally,  by  an  amelioration  in  the  conditions  of  the 
existing  tobacco,  salt,  and  other  monopolies. 

The  very  mention  of  monopolies  is  shocking  to 
most  economists,  but  political  economy  is  not  an 
exact  science,  and  there  are  many  exceptions  even 
to  the  most  widely  accepted  of  its  rules.  Turkey 
must  have  money.  The  foreign  capital  necessary 
to  develop  her  resources  hesitates  to  come  in,  wait- 
ing to  see  its  security.  A  monopoly  affords  that 
security  and  tempts  capital  as  nothing  else  will.  The 
English  business  men  to  whom  I  spoke  in  Turkey 
regarded  the  granting  of  monopolies  for  compara- 
tively short  terms  as  expedient  under  the  present 
conditions  in  Turkey;  for  not  only  does  this  foster- 
ing of  large  industries  provide  employment  for  many 
people,  but  —  what  is  of  the  utmost  importance  to 
266 


A    STRONG    ARMY    NEEDED 

Turkey  at  the  present  moment  —  it  will  also  bring  to 
the  Turkish  Government,  without  any  expenditure 
on  its  part,  an  immediate  and  considerable  revenue. 

As  the  time  for  the  Parliamentary  elections  drew 
near  the  Committee  of  Union  and  Progress  published 
its  political  programme,  and  to  this  all  candidates 
who  were  nominees  of  the  Committee  were  bound 
to  adhere.  The  following  were  among  the  more 
important  of  the  Committee's  demands:  that  the 
Cabinet  should  be  responsible  to  the  Chamber  of 
Deputies;  that  Turkish  should  remain  the  official 
language  of  the  Empire;  that  the  different  races 
should  have  equal  rights;  that  non-Moslems  should 
be  liable  to  military  service;  that  the  term  of  mili- 
tary service  should  be  reduced;  that  peasants  who 
had  no  land  should  be  assisted  to  procure  land,  but 
not  at  the  expense  of  the  present  land-owners;  that 
education  should  be  free  and  compulsory. 

It  was  deeply  interesting  to  be  in  Turkey  during 
the  elections,  to  watch  the  Young  Turks  zealously 
conducting  their  campaign  to  serve  what  they  con- 
sidered to  be  their  country's  interests,  and  the  peo- 
ple themselves  puzzling  out  the  meaning  of  this  new 
Western  innovation,  the  Constitution,  and  balancing 
the  arguments  of  rival  canvassers.  The  representa- 
tives of  the  Committee  of  Union  and  Progress  were 
prepared  to  discuss  patiently  the  intentions  of  the 
party  with  any  group  of  electors  that  came  to  con- 
sult them,  and  while  promising  concessions  to  just 
demands,  they  did  not  attempt  to  catch  votes  by 
making  wild  promises  which  could  never  be  fulfilled. 
267 


TURKEY 

Thus,  when  the  Armenians  —  who  have  proved  their 
loyalty  to  the  Constitution  and  have  not  harassed  the 
Government  with  unjustifiable  grievances  —  asked 
that  the  lands  which  had  been  taken  from  the 
Armenians  by  the  Kurds  should  be  returjied  to  the 
rightful  owners,  the  Committee,  realising  that  in 
practical  politics  there  must  be  a  law  of  prescrip- 
tion even  for  the  raider,  and  not  wishing  to  have  a 
Kurd  question  added  to  the  numerous  other  diffi- 
culties which  were  confronting  Turkey,  suggested 
that  it  would  be  wiser  to  leave  the  turbulent  Kurds 
in  possession  of  what  they  seized  some  time  ago 
and  to  compensate  the  Armenians  by  giving  them 
at  least  equally  good  lands  in  the  once  productive 
tracts  which  have  long  been  lying  fallow  and  de- 
serted. On  the  other  hand,  the  Committee  could 
not  assent  to  the  proposal  of  the  Arabians  that  the 
use  of  the  Arab  tongue  should  be  permitted  in  the 
debates  of  the  Chamber  of  Deputies.  To  Chris- 
tians of  all  sects  it  promised  that  there  would  be 
no  interference  with  their  churches,  language,  edu- 
cation, and  laws  of  marriage  and  inheritance;  but 
refused  to  consider  the  question  of  complete  admin- 
istrative decentralisation,  or  of  autonomy,  for  any 
portion  of  the  Empire. 

On  the  other  hand,  the  agents  of  the  reactionary 
party  —  the  party  of  those  who  had  fattened  under 
the  old  regime  of  plunder  and  were  loth  to  see  the 
profitable  abuses  swept  away  —  worked  hard  to  in- 
fluence the  electors,  but  apparently  with  little  effect 
in  European  Turkey  and  Asia  Minor.  Certain  fool- 
268 


A    STRONG    ARMY    NEEDED 

ish  agitators  who  were  infected  with  some  of  the 
sociahstic  doctrines  of  Western  Europe  unwittingly 
helped  the  cause  of  the  reactionaries  by  raising  the 
election  cry  of  "No  more  taxes  for  the  people" 
and  "Down  with  all  monopolies."  I  have  explained 
that  the  more  ignorant  people  thought  that  with  the 
suppression  of  the  late  regime  there  would  be  an 
end  of  all  authority.  When  they  were  enlightened 
on  this  matter  by  the  Young  Turks,  and  discovered 
that  they  would  be  compelled  to  pay  their  taxes 
as  heretofore  they  felt  some  disappointment,  and 
this  afforded  an  opportunity  to  the  reactionaries  to 
point  out  to  them  that  they  would  be  no  better  off 
under  the  Constitution  than  they  had  been  before, 
and  that,  at  any  rate,  Turkey,  under  the  old 
regime,  had  been  a  Mussulman  State,  whereas  under 
the  new  order  of  things  the  government  would  be  in 
the  hands  of  bad  Mohammedans,  Christians,  and 
Jews. 

In  Arabia  and  in  other  parts  of  Asia  the  efforts 
of  the  friends  of  the  old  regime,  as  might  be 
expected,  were  attended  with  some  success.  The 
fanatical  Arabs,  who  have  never  been  reconciled  to 
the  Turkish  rule,  were  impressed  by  the  preachings 
of  those  who  in  the  mosques  denounced  the  Consti- 
tution, and  declared  that  the  Turks,  who  had  ever 
been  indifferent  Mussulmans,  had  now  abandoned 
the  essential  doctrines  of  Islam  and  were  worse 
than  the  Christians  and  Jews  with  whom  they 
associated. 

But  with  the  other  races  of  the  Empire  it  was  still 
269 


TURKEY 

—  in  those  early  days  of  liberty  —  harmony,  frater- 
nisation, and  enthusiasm;  the  racial  and  religious 
differences  appeared  to  be  forgotten  for  a  while;  one 
read  of  elections  in  which  Christians  were  voting  for 
Mussulman  candidates  or  Mussulmans  for  Christian 
candidates.  The  optimistic  Minister  of  the  Inte- 
rior, Haki  Bey,  made  the  following  statement:  "In 
our  Parliament  there  will  be  no  Turkish,  Armenian, 
Greek,  or  Jew  Deputies;  they  will  all  be  Ottoman 
Deputies."  If  one  judged  from  the  appearance  of 
the  surface  one  would  have  concluded  that  the  pro- 
claimed ideal  of  the  Young  Turk  party  —  the  union 
of  people  of  all  races  and  creeds  within  the  Empire 

—  was  in  a  fair  way  to  being  realised. 

The  Turkish  election  law  —  which  is  now  being 
revised  —  defines  so  vaguely  the  qualifications  for  a 
voter  that  a  good  deal  of  misunderstanding  arose. 
Thus  the  Greek  farmers  in  Epirus  clamoured  for 
the  franchise,  which  had  been  denied  to  them  on 
the  ground  that  they  were  not  taxpayers,  the  tithes 
being  paid,  not  by  them,  but  by  the  owners  of  the 
land.  The  Greeks  maintained  that,  as  this  tax  is 
calculated  on  the  produce  of  the  soil  and  not  on  the 
rent  paid,  the  farmers  were  virtually  the  taxpayers 
and  therefore  entitled  to  vote.  To  decide  what 
constituted  a  taxpayer  in  the  eyes  of  the  election 
law  must  have  puzzled  the  brains  of  many  a  Turk- 
ish oflficial  at  this  time,  especially  when  he  had  be- 
fore him  some  cunning  and  plausibly  argumentative 
Greek,  determined  to  have  his  vote  by  hook  or  by 
crook.  In  an  amusing  case  which  was  brought  before 
270 


A    STRONG    ARMY    NEEDED 

my  notice  an  importunate  person  was  allowed  to 
vote  in  his  capacity  as  a  taxpayer,  though  the  only 
proof  that  he  was  such  lay  in  the  fact  that  he  had 
on  his  back  a  coat  made  of  a  foreign  cloth,  which, 
if  not  smuggled,  must  have  contributed  to  taxa- 
tion in  the  form  of  Customs  duties  as  it  entered  the 
country.  The  Turkish  equivalents  to  English  revis- 
ing barristers  had  plenty  of  work  to  do  in  all  the 
constituencies  between  Macedonia  and  Baghdad.  It 
reminded  one  pleasingly  of  England  to  read  of  these 
things ;  but  there  were  differences  to  be  noticed  here 
and  there  between  the  British  and  Turkish  frame  of 
mind  during  a  General  Election.  For  example,  the 
Turkish  electorate  appears  to  be  somewhat  more 
exacting  than  the  English,  and  it  was  announced 
that  at  Gumuldjina  the  imams,  carrying  the  sacred 
banners  from  the  mosques,  assembled  with  ten  thou- 
sand Mohammedans  in  front  of  the  Municipality,  to 
protest  against  the  nomination  as  parliamentary  can- 
didates of  ''obscure  and  undistinguished  individuals.^* 
The  following  are  the  more  important  features 
of  the  electoral  regulations  under  the  existing  law.^ 
The  elections  are  quadrennial.  Roughly  speaking^ 
fifty  thousand  voters  are  represented  by  one  mem- 
ber of  Parliament.  There  are  two  classes  of  electors; 
each  group  of  about  five  hundred  electors  of  the 
first  class  selects  an  elector  of  the  second  class,  and 
the  electors  of  the  second  class  nominate  and  elect 
the  Deputies.  The  following  are  among  the  qualifi- 
cations for  the  franchise :  An  elector  must  be  a  male 
Ottoman  subject,  over  twenty -five  years  of  age;  he 
271 


TURKEY 

must  be  a  payer  of  direct  taxes;  he  must  have  hved 
a  year  in  the  district  in  which  he  exercises  his  right 
of  voting,  and  must  produce  a  certificate  from  the 
moukhtar  of  his  former  place  of  domicile  showing 
that  he  is  entitled  to  vote;  employes  of  the  State 
and  officers  in  the  army,  from  the  rank  of  lieuten- 
ant upwards,  have  the  right  to  vote  in  whatever 
electoral  districts  they  may  happen  to  be  during  the 
elections;  soldiers  on  furlough  can  vote  in  their  own 
districts.  A  man  is  disquahfied  from  voting  if  he 
has  been  condemned  for  a  crime,  if  he  is  an  undis- 
charged bankrupt,  if  his  character  is  notoriously 
bad,  if  he  is  acting  as  servant  to  another  indi- 
vidual, if  he  has  represented  himself  as  being  of 
other  than  Ottoman  nationahty.  A  Deputy  must 
be  over  thirty  years  of  age,  must  know  the  Turkish 
language,  and  must  possess  the  qualifications  of  an 
elector.  A  good  many  of  these  regulations  were  not 
insisted  on  rigidly  at  the  recent  elections;  for  ex- 
ample, there  are  several  Deputies  who  cannot  speak 
Turkish. 

The  electoral  laws  provide  heavy  punishments  for 
those  who  employ  violence,  intimidation,  or  corrup- 
tion at  elections.  By  Article  72  of  the  Constitution 
the  penalty  for  influencing  elections  by  false  state- 
ments and  calumnies  is  a  fine  of  forty  pounds  and  a 
period  of  imprisonment  of  from  one  year  up  to  five 
years,  according  to  the  gravity  of  the  offence;  so  it 
would  be  a  dangerous  thing  in  Turkey  for  partisans 
to  post  the  walls  with  cartoons  such  as  those  which 
have  exerted  no  small  influence  at  General  Elections 
272 


A    STRONG    ARMY    NEEDED 

in  England.  Another  curious  regulation,  the  object 
of  which  is  to  prevent  rioting,  compels  the  elector  to 
return  to  his  home  as  soon  as  he  has  registered  his 
vote.  It  is  also  laid  down  that  electors,  before  they 
drop  their  voting  papers  into  the  urn,  must  attend 
the  prayers  of  the  imam  (or  priest  in  the  case  of  a 
Christian  voter)  for  the  prolongation  of  the  Sultan's 
life  and  the  increase  of  his  glory. 

In  the  late  autumn,  throughout  the  Turkish  Em- 
pire, the  elections  took  place.  Turks,  Albanians, 
Greeks,  Bulgarians,  Serbs,  Wallachs,  Armenians, 
Jews,  Latins,  Arabs,  Syrians,  Kurds,  Druses,  elected 
their  Deputies  to  a  Chamber  which  represents  so 
many  races,  interests,  creeds,  and  languages  that 
Turkey's  new  Parliament  in  all  probability  would 
have  been  a  Babel  of  vain  talk  and  no  doing  had 
it  not  been  that  the  cause  of  the  Committee  of 
Union  and  Progress  triumphed  in  European  Turkey 
and  in  Anatolia,  and  secured  many  adherents  in 
other  parts  of  the  Empire,  with  the  result  that  the 
nominees  of  the  Committee  formed  a  large  majority 
in  the  Chamber. 

I  was  in  Constantinople  during  the  election  oper- 
ations, and  very  interesting  and  picturesque  they 
were.  On  the  night  preceding  the  polling  the  big 
drums  were  beating  loudly  in  the  Turkish  quarters 
of  the  capital  to  remind  the  electors  that  it  was 
their  duty  as  good  citizens  of  a  free  country  to  go 
on  the  morrow  to  the  appointed  places  and  drop 
their  voting  papers  in  the  ballot  boxes.  On  the  fol- 
lowing morning  the  great  city  presented  a  very  ani- 
273 


TURKEY 

mated  appearance.  Large  processions  were  formed 
to  carry  with  due  ceremony  the  urns,  or  ballot 
boxes,  to  the  various  mosques,  Greek  and  Armenian 
churches,  synagogues,  police  stations,  and  other  pub- 
lic buildings,  in  which  the  voting  was  to  take  place. 
A  typical  Mussulman  procession  which  passed  me 
was  composed  as  follows :  First  came  a  military  band 
and  a  small  escort  of  infantry;  next  a  carriage 
draped  with  Turkish  flags,  containing  the  voting 
urn  and  a  few  ofiicials;  lastly,  a  motley  Mussulman 
crowd  of  voters  and  others,  including  imams,  accom- 
panied by  theological  students,  pupils  of  the  artil- 
lery and  naval  academies  and  numbers  of  happy 
school  children,  conspicuous  among  which  was  a 
band  of  tiny  Moslem  girls,  wearing  veils  and  wav- 
ing miniature  Turkish  flags  as  they  toddled  along 
by  the  side  of  some  tall  gendarmes  who  brought  up 
the  rear  of  the  procession.  This  and  the  other  pro- 
cessions which  I  met  moved  through  the  crowded 
streets  to  the  accompaniment  of  martial  music,  the 
singing  of  patriotic  songs,  occasional  cheers  for  lib- 
erty and  justice,  and  the  waving  of  many  flags. 
These  were,  indeed,  the  most  good-humoured  and 
happiest  election  demonstrations  one  remembers  to 
have  seen  in  any  country;  there  were  no  party  cries 
or  manifestions  of  party  feelings  of  any  sort;  all 
seemed  to  be  thinking  of  the  good  of  their  country 
alone,  and  to  be  rejoicing  in  its  liberation.  The 
Greeks  and  Armenians  had  similar  processions,  also 
headed  by  military  bands  (for  these  had  been  lent 
to  all  sections  of  the  electorate  by  the  authorities), 
274 


A    STRONG    ARMY    NEEDED 

and  here,  too,  the  priestly  element  was  largely  rep- 
resented. At  one  manifestation  which  I  saw  in 
Stamboul  the  Turk  and  Armenian  electors  joined 
forces,  and  there  were  to  be  seen  in  the  combined 
procession  Mussulman  hodjas  and  Armenian  priests 
in  their  full  Mohammedan  and  Christian  canoni- 
cals, walking  hand  in  hand  in  amity.  For  a  while 
good-fellowship  reigned  everywhere  in  this  city  of 
rival  creeds  and  races.  To  judge  from  appearances 
it  might  have  been  concluded  that  "Fraternity," 
which  has  been  the  watchword  of  all  revolutions, 
has  for  the  first  time  in  history  been  brought  about 
in  Turkey,  of  all  countries  in  the  world. 

But  when  the  voting  commenced  it  was  made 
manifest  that  the  brotherhood  of  creeds  and  races 
in  Turkey  had  not  yet  been  realised.  The  Turks, 
Armenians,  Latins,  Syrians,  and  Jews  recorded  their 
votes  without  any  difficulties  arising,  and  in  many 
instances  voted  for  the  same  candidates.  But  the 
Greeks,  who,  according  to  the  (Ecumenical  Patri- 
arch, number  one  hundred  and  fifty  thousand  in 
Constantinople,  created  a  good  deal  of  disturbance, 
after  the  manner  of  their  brethren  in  Athens  on 
similar  occasions.  In  many  parts  of  Turkey  the 
Greeks  complained  bitterly  of  the  electoral  irregu- 
larities which,  so  they  alleged,  had  been  committed 
at  their  expense,  and  rioting  occurred  in  Smyrna  and 
elsewhere.  So  the  Greeks  in  the  capital,  protesting 
that  they  had  been  very  badly  treated,  organised 
noisy  demonstrations  which  caused  the  elections  to 
occupy  several  more  days  than  had  been  intended. 
275 


TURKEY 

The  polling  opened  on  a  Friday,  and  it  was  made 
evident  that  the  Greeks  had  come  into  the  streets 
on  the  lookout  for  trouble.  It  was  noticeable  that 
when  a  man  of  another  race  was  not  permitted  to 
register  his  vote  on  account  of  some  irregularity  in 
his  papers  or  other  disqualification,  he  went  away 
quietly,  whereas  the  Greeks  in  like  circumstances 
stayed  to  protest  and  bluster  until  they  formed 
crowds  of  disappointed  voters  who  blocked  the  way 
to  the  urns,  and  by  so  doing  considerably  delayed 
the  course  of  the  election.  On  the  following  morn- 
ing the  Greek  leaders  hurried  about  Pera  collecting 
the  people,  and  ordered  all  the  Greek  shop-keepers  to 
close  their  shops,  which  they  promptly  did.  Others 
got  into  the  belfries  of  the  Greek  churches  and  rang 
the  bells  violently  to  summon  the  crowds,  and  soon 
the  main  streets  w^ere  packed  with  excited  and 
clamouring  men.  Seeing  that  they  practically  all 
carried  revolvers  and  knives  it  is  wonderful  that  but 
few  accidents  occurred  throughout  the  demonstra- 
tion. The  authorities  took  due  precautions.  Cer- 
tain points  were  occupied  by  troops,  and  bodies  of 
cavalry  and  infantry  patrolled  the  streets,  in  no  way 
interfering  with  the  demonstration,  but  awing  the 
demonstrators  by  their  very  presence,  for  the  inhabi- 
tants of  Constantinople  knew  of  what  stuff  are 
made  these  soldiers  who  trooped  slowly  by,  silent, 
stolid,  apparently  indifferent  to  all  that  w^as  going 
on  around  them,  in  striking  contrast  to  the  noisy 
rabble  which  gave  way  before  them.  On  the  Sun- 
day the  church  bells  again  rang  out  their  appeal, 
276 


A    STRONG    ARMY    NEEDED 

and  thirty  thousand  Greeks  having  assembled  in 
Pera  marched  through  Galata,  crossed  the  Golden 
Horn  by  the  bridge  of  boats  and  came  to  the  Sub- 
lime Porte,  where  they  insisted  that  the  Grand  Viz- 
ier himself,  Kiamil  Pasha,  should  come  out  to  speak 
to  them.  When  that  aged  statesman  did  appear 
to  explain  that  full  justice  would  be  done  to  them 
by  Parliament  should  they  be  able  to  show  that 
the  alleged  irregularities  had  occurred,  these  peo- 
ple, who  but  a  few  months  before  were  afraid  to 
open  their  mouths  if  any  representative  of  the 
dreaded  Government  was  near,  insulted  Kiamil 
Pasha  by  shouting  out  to  him  that  his  verbal  assur- 
ances would  not  suffice  for  them,  and  that  they 
must  have  his  undertaking  in  writing.  This  atti- 
tude, of  course,  brought  the  conference  to  an  end, 
and  the  Grand  Vizier  retired.  It  became  necessary 
later  to  employ  the  cavalry  to  clear  the  streets,  but, 
wonderful  to  say,  only  two  casualties,  and  these 
slight  ones,  were  reported  for  this  day.  The  troops 
displayed  a  great  forbearance  and  behaved  admi- 
rably under  conditions  calculated  to  try  their  temper. 
Observing  the  indignation  and  distress  of  the 
Greeks,  one  would  have  supposed  that  they  had 
been  very  badly  treated.  As  a  matter  of  fact  their 
clamour  was  chiefly  caused  by  disappointment  at 
the  failure  of  their  scheme  to  obtain  a  much  larger 
representation  in  Parliament  than  their  numbers 
warranted.  Their  point  of  view  was  that  the  Greek 
element  of  the  Turkish  population,  being  the  most 
civilised  and  cultured,  was  the  best  fitted  to  under 
277 


TURKEY 

take  the  Government  of  the  country,  and,  being 
Greeks,  they  considered  that  any  means  were  fair 
which  could  forward  their  aim.  The  Greeks  are 
the  only  people  in  Turkey  who  understand  elec- 
tion trickery,  and  they  were  assisted  in  their  recent 
campaign  by  clever  and,  of  course,  absolutely  un- 
scrupulous electioneering  experts  from  Athens.  Tak- 
ing advantage  of  the  ignorance  of  the  lower  class 
Moslems  they  obtained  votes  by  various  fraudulent 
devices  and  misrepresentation.  The  Greeks  flocked 
to  the  polls  whether  they  were  entitled  to  a  vote  or 
not.  Impersonation  both  of  the  living  and  the  dead 
was  largely  practised.  In  Turkey,  each  voter,  on 
coming  up  to  the  voting  place,  has  to  show  his 
hamidieh  —  the  official  paper  testifying  to  Ottoman 
nationality  and  date  of  birth.  It  was  discovered 
that  Greeks  not  entitled  to  the  vote  had  been  pro- 
vided with  the  hamidiehs  of  dead  men  and  of  peo- 
ple who  had  left  the  country.  In  some  cases,  too, 
the  stamps  which  are  impressed  upon  the  hamidiehs 
to  show  that  the  vote  has  been  registered  had  been 
erased,  thus  enabling  an  hamidieh  to  be  used  by  a 
succession  of  would-be  voters. 

The  Greeks  would  now  be  represented  by  a 
powerful  party  in  the  Turkish  Parliament  had  not 
the  Committee  of  Union  and  Progress  kept  a  close 
watch  on  them  during  the  elections.  The  Greeks 
have  themselves  to  blame  for  the  under-represen- 
tation  of  which  they  now  complain.  They  com- 
pelled the  Committee  to  exercise  an  influence  in  the 
elections  which,  though  technically  unfair,  was  fully 
278 


A    STRONG    ARMY    NEEDED 

justified  by  the  circumstances.  The  hberty  so 
recently  won  had  to  be  safeguarded  by  the  return 
of  a  sohd  majority  of  patriotic  Turks  to  the  Cham- 
ber of  Deputies. 

The  Greeks,  gifted  as  they  are  with  administra- 
tive capacity,  held  high  appointments  under  the  old 
regime,  and  will  no  doubt  do  so  to  a  greater  extent 
under  a  constitutional  Government;  but  as  a  people 
they  have  yet  to  prove  themselves  loyal  Ottomans. 
During  the  elections  their  one  thought  was  for  the 
interests  of  their  own  race.  Headed  by  the  CEcu- 
menical  Patriarch,  they  demanded  the  maintenance 
of  all  the  privileges  that  had  been  granted  to  them 
from  the  time  of  the  Turkish  conquest.  The  Mos- 
lems have  had  to  give  up  their  special  rights,  but 
the  Greeks  refused  to  surrender  a  single  one  of 
their  privileges  for  the  sake  of  Ottoman  unity.  The 
Greeks  chatter  about  liberty,  equality,  and  frater- 
nity, but  their  aim  is  to  secure  to  themselves  ad- 
vantages over  the  other  Christian  peoples;  and  the 
Patriarchate,  the  most  cruel  and  intolerant  ecclesi- 
astical tyranny  remaining  in  the  world,  makes  use 
of  "liberty"  to  increase  its  persecutions  of  the  ex- 
archists  and  other  schismatics.  In  the  ranks  of  the 
reactionaries  are  to  be  found  many  Greeks  who 
profited  much  by  the  Despotism  whose  parasites 
they  were.  A  large  number  of  the  Greeks  in  Tur- 
key still  cling  to  their  separatist  aspirations.  Even 
as  I  write  this  the  Greeks  in  Macedonia  are  break- 
ing the  peace  which  the  Young  Turks  brought  to 
that  long  harassed  land;  for  large  Greek  bands  are 
279 


TURKEY 

once  more  in  the  field,  with  no  shadow  of  a  griev- 
ance as  their  excuse  for  brigandage  this  time,  but 
agitating  for  various  things,  including  the  annexa- 
tion of  Crete  to  Greece.  If  the  great  Powers  would 
act  together  and  let  it  be  clearly  understood  that 
under  no  conceivable  circumstances  will  Greece  be 
permitted  to  annex  another  foot  of  Ottoman  terri- 
tory, the  Greeks  in  Turkey  might  become  the  use- 
ful citizens  of  a  united  country;  for  they,  like  all 
the  other  peoples  in  European  Turkey,  would  pre- 
fer even  a  Hamidian  despotism  to  the  domination 
of  Germany,  Austria,  or  Russia. 


280 


CHAPTER    XX 

THE    OPENING    OF   PARLIAMENT 

ON  December  17  Abdul  Hamid  drove  through 
the  streets  of  his  capital  between  cheering 
crowds  to  open  the  Turkish  Parliament. 
The  scene  has  been  often  described,  and  it  is  un- 
necessary here  to  relate  again  the  events  of  that 
memorable  day.  That  night  I  sailed  through  the 
Dardanelles,  and  on  either  side  of  me,  on  the  shores 
of  both  Europe  and  Asia,  every  little  town  and  vil- 
lage and  the  anchored  fleets  of  fishing  craft  in  the 
harbours  were  brightly  illuminated;  isolated  farm- 
houses on  snowy  hillsides  had  their  windows  full  of 
lights;  fires  blazed  on  many  a  lonely  peak;  and  so  it 
was  all  along  the  shores  of  Turkey  from  the  Adriatic 
and  the  iEgean  to  the  Black  Sea  and  the  shores 
of  the  Persian  Gulf.  It  was  a  day  and  a  night  of 
rejoicing,  and  so  contagious  was  the  sincere  enthu- 
siasm that  even  the  most  cynical  foreigner  in  the 
land  had  not  the  heart  to  speak  otherwise  than 
hopefully  of  the  future  of  this  freed  country. 

Some  months  have  passed  since  that  winter's 
day.  As  might  have  been  expected,  things  have 
not  gone  altogether  smoothly  in  Turkey,  and  there 
have  been  reports  of  internal  dissensions  that  have 
puzzled  and  alarmed  the  English  well-wishers  of  the 
281 


TURKEY 

new  regime.  As  regards  the  open  rebellions  against 
the  Government  that  have  occurred  in  various  por- 
tions of  the  Empire,  no  one  imagined  that  the  proc- 
lamation of  a  Constitution  would  suddenly  bring 
peace,  once  and  for  all,  to  restless  races  that  have 
been  fighting  and  raiding  for  centuries.  The  com- 
plete pacification  of  these  regions  cannot  but  be  a 
work  of  time.  The  lawless  Albanian  tribes  are  again 
carrying  on  their  organised  brigandage,  even  in  that 
Dibra  district  where  Niazi  Bey's  propaganda  had 
been  so  wholly  successful;  the  Northern  Albanians 
are  agitating  for  autonomy,  even  as  they  were  thirty 
years  ago  when  I  wandered  through  their  highlands; 
Turkish  troops,  even  as  I  am  writing  this,  are  de- 
fending Armenians  against  raiding  Kurds;  ^  risings 
of  fanatical  Arabs  in  Arabia  are  being  suppressed; 
and  the  Greek  bands  are  once  more  troubling  Mace- 
donia. These  are  unfortunate  happenings,  but  with 
a  Government  that  combines  firmness  with  justice 
and  patience,  this  lawless  state  of  things  will  disap- 
pear; and  it  must  be  remembered  that  sheer  love  of 
fighting  and  raiding  rather  than  political  disafi'ection 
is  the  cause  of  some  of  these  disturbances.  These 
revolts  and  raids  had  become  almost  chronic  com- 
plaints under  the  old  regime;  the  world  is  now  watch- 
ing Turkey;  events  that  would  have  passed  almost 
unnoticed  a  year  ago  are  reported  in  the  European 
press,  and  their  importance  is  naturally  overrated 
by  those  who  read  of  them. 

1  This  was  written  before  the  counter-revolution  and  the  terrible  massa- 
cre of  Armenians  that  followed  it. 

282 


THE   OPENING    OF   PARLIAMENT 

But  the  political  dissensions  among  the  Turks 
themselves  —  which  have  been  much  embittered  of 
late  —  are  more  alarming  to  the  friends  of  Turkey 
than  are  any  of  these  risings  of  lawless  peoples. 
This  is  no  time  for  the  patriotic  element  to  be 
divided  against  itself,  and  it  behooves  the  Young 
Turks  to  present  a  solid  and  united  front  to  the 
many  external  and  internal  enemies  of  Turkey's 
liberty  and  the  Empire's  integrity.  The  Commit- 
tee of  Union  and  Progress,  the  deliverer  of  Turkey 
from  the  Despotism,  has  enemies  in  the  land  who 
are  unsparing  and  unscrupulous  in  their  attacks, 
and  most  cunning  in  their  intriguings.  The  anom- 
alous position  of  the  organisation  has  naturally 
invited  some  honest  criticism.  Almost  immediately 
after  the  proclamation  of  the  Constitution,  not  only 
reactionary  Turks  and  politicians  jealous  of  the 
Young  Turk  party,  but  also  European  friends  of 
Turkey,  including  certain  British  diplomatists  and 
a  section  of  the  Press  that  voices  their  views,  began 
to  urge  that  the  Committee,  its  work  having  been 
accomplished,  no  longer  had  a  raison  d'etre  and 
should  be  dissolved  at  once.  It  was  pointed  out 
that  an  irresponsible  power  behind  the  Parliament 
was  unconstitutional,  and  that  the  Committee,  with 
its  unknown  leaders,  had  become  an  illegal  institu- 
tion now  that  Turkey  had  been  granted  represent- 
ative government. 

Now   surely   this    argument    savours    of    a    legal 
pedantry  that  ignores  surrounding  conditions.     The 
Committee  was,  of  course,  an  illegal  institution  from 
283 


TURKEY 

its  inception;  it  saved  Turkey  by  illegal  methods;  a 
revolution  cannot  but  be  an  illegal  operation:  and 
it  would  be  obviously  unsafe  on  the  morrow  of  a 
successful  revolution  —  when  a  nation  is  still  in  con- 
fusion, when  the  people  have  yet  no  idea  how  they 
should  exercise  their  new  rights,  when  the  new  insti- 
tutions from  their  very  freedom  lie  open  to  the  attack 
of  cunning  foes  —  to  adhere  strictly  to  constitutional 
technicalities  and  legalities,  and  to  break  up  the 
strong  organised  power  that  has  brought  about  the 
overthrow  of  a  regime.  After  the  English  revolu- 
tion Cromwell  had  no  scruples  in  violating  law  to 
save  a  cause.  If  there  had  been  a  strong  Commit- 
tee of  Union  and  Progress  behind  the  Constitution 
which  the  Sultan  swore  to  observe  on  his  coming 
to  the  throne,  Turkey  might  have  been  saved  thirty 
years  of  despotism  and  the  loss  of  much  territory. 

The  Young  Turks  fully  realised  the  difficulties  and 
dangers  before  them.  Many  were  the  foes  of  the 
newly  freed  fatherland.  There  were  those  of  the 
Great  Powers  to  whom  constitutional  liberty  in  Tur- 
key meant  interference  with  their  designs  to  enrich 
themselves  and  obtain  territorial  expansion  at  Tur- 
key's expense;  there  were  the  smaller  Powers  on  the 
frontier,  Bulgaria,  Servia,  Greece,  eager  to  scramble 
over  the  partition  of  Macedonia;  and,  far  more  dan- 
gerous than  these,  there  were  the  Turkish  reaction- 
aries, who  began  to  intrigue  everywhere  against 
the  Constitution  immediately  after  its  proclamation, 
ready  to  seize  their  chance  when  they  saw  it.  The 
Young  Turks  in  their  hour  of  triumph  had  freely 
284 


THE   OPENING   OF   PARLIAMENT 

pardoned  all  save  a  few  of  the  worst  of  the  crea- 
tures of  the  Palace,  but  this  great  clemency  gained 
them  no  gratitude.  It  was  also  a  source  of  no  small 
danger  that  the  Young  Turks,  having  but  few  trained 
administrators  in  their  own  ranks,  had  retained  the 
services  of  such  high  officials  of  the  old  regime  as 
had  no  notoriously  evil  records  for  corruption  or 
oppression.  Some  of  these  men  are  the  secret  ene- 
mies of  the  new  order  of  things.  The  Young  Turks, 
therefore,  determined  to  remain  on  their  guard  and 
see  to  it  that  Turkey's  newly  won  liberty  was  not 
wrested  from  her.  As  I  have  stated  in  a  previous 
chapter,  they  held  that,  far  from  losing  its  raison 
d'etre  on  the  opening  of  Parliament,  the  Committee 
of  Union  and  Progress  would  be  more  necessary  than 
ever  for  the  protection  of  the  country,  and  they 
decided  not  to  dissolve  this  powerful  organisation, 
but  to  maintain  it,  legally  or  illegally,  supported  as 
heretofore  by  the  army,  until  such  time  as  the  Con- 
stitution should  be  firmly  established.  Such  was 
their  justification,  and  they  were  sincere  in  their 
explanations  of  their  resolution. 

As  will  have  been  gathered  from  what  I  have  said 
in  this  book  the  Committee  of  Union  and  Progress 
is  no  small  body  of  patriots.  When  I  was  in  Turkey 
it  numbered  seventy  thousand  members.  I  under- 
stand that  it  now  has  a  membership  of  about  a  hun- 
dred thousand.  It  includes  all  that  is  best  and  most 
patriotic  of  the  educated  young  Moslem  manhood  of 
the  country.  There  are  now  the  many  Christians, 
too,  on  the  Committee  who  have  rejected  the  idle 
285 


TURKEY 

separatist  aspirations  of  their  several  races  and  have 
Ottoman  unity  as  their  ideal,  and  also  many  of  those 
Jews  who  from  the  beginning  have  co-operated  loy- 
ally with  the  Young  Turks.  When  I  was  in  the 
country  last  autumn  it  looked  much  as  if  this  Com- 
mittee had  as  its  members  nearly  all  the  men  to 
whom  it  would  be  safest  to  leave  the  guidance  of  the 
Empire. 

Unfortunately,  it  seems  to  be  an  undoubted  fact 
that  the  Committee  of  Union  and  Progress  has 
made  many  enemies  even  among  those  who  cannot 
be  accused  of  reactionary  tendencies.  The  Com- 
mittee has  undoubtedly  done  some  ill-advised  and 
tactless  things,  and  its  arbitrary  methods  have  raised 
up  against  itself  some  relentless  foes;  but  there  can, 
I  think,  be  no  doubt  that  it  has  been  actuated 
throughout  by  pure  and  patriotic  motives,  and  that 
its  errors  have  been  those  of  zeal  and  inexperience. 
I  have  met  several  members  of  the  party  recently, 
and  they  all  sincerely  believe  that  the  Committee 
had  very  good  reasons  for  compelling  Kiamil  Pasha 
to  resign  the  Grand  Vizierate  in  February  last;  they 
are  confident  that  the  aged  statesman  had  been  mis- 
led by  the  plausible  enemies  of  Turkey's  liberties 
and  was  being  duped  by  reactionaries.  The  friction 
between  the  Committee  and  the  Grand  Vizier  com- 
menced some  months  before  the  opening  of  the  Par- 
liament; Kiamil,  being  a  Pasha  of  the  old  school, 
naturally  resented  the  dictation  of  the  Committee, 
and  complained  that  while  his  was  the  responsibility 
the  Committee  held  all  the  power.  The  Committee 
286 


THE   OPENING   OF   PARLIAMENT 

was  alarmed  by  Ejamil  Pasha's  friendly  relations 
with  the  Liberal  Union,  the  party  in  opposition  to 
the  Committee,  and  recognised  the  insidious  work 
of  reactionary  influence  when  Kiamil  despatched 
from  Constantinople  to  Macedonia  certain  battal- 
ions that  were  faithful  to  the  Committee,  thus 
imperilling,  in  the  eyes  of  the  Young  Turks,  the 
safety  of  the  constitutional  cause  in  the  capital. 
When  the  Grand  Vizier,  without  consultation  with 
his  ministers  or  with  the  party,  suddenly  dismissed 
the  Ministers  of  War  and  Marine,  the  nominees  of 
the  Committee,  and  placed  others  in  their  stead,  the 
crisis  was  precipitated.  The  Young  Turks,  above 
all  things,  were  determined  that  those  in  whom 
they  did  not  place  implicit  confidence  should  not 
control  the  army,  so  the  Committee,  even  as  it  had 
compelled  the  resignation  of  Said  Pasha,  because 
he  had  left  the  appointment  of  the  Ministers  of  War 
and  Marine  in  the  hands  of  the  Sultan,  now  insisted 
upon  the  resignation  of  Kiamil  Pasha,  and  effected 
its  purpose  in  so  peremptory  a  way  that  it  lost 
much  of  its  popularity  with  the  people  and  afforded 
its  unscrupulous  enemies  a  handle  for  attack. 
The  intrigues  connected  with  the  fall  of  Kiamil 
Pasha  need  not  be  discussed  here;  but  one  gathers 
that  the  man  chiefly  to  blame  is  Kiamil 's  own  son. 
Said,  a  worthless  person  who  enriched  himself  by 
co-operating  with  the  brigands  in  the  neighbour- 
hood of  Smyrna.  On  several  previous  occasions  he 
has  compromised  by  his  intrigues  his  aged  father, 
the  one  person  in  Turkey  who  believes  that  there  is 
287 


TURKEY 

no  real  harm  in  this  very  bad  specimen  of  a  young 
Turkish  gentleman.  Of  Kiamil  Pasha's  successor 
to  the  Grand  Vizierate,  Hilmi  Pasha,  I  have  already 
spoken. 

The  Committee  justified  its  treatment  of  Kiamil 
Pasha  and  its  other  arbitrary  acts  by  pleading  the 
necessity  of  protecting  the  nation  against  the  strong 
reactionary  forces  which  certainly  do  exist,  despite 
the  assertions  of  the  organs  of  the  Liberal  Union, 
which  have  ever  ridiculed  the  possibility  of  a  reac- 
tionary movement,  and  have  accused  the  Commit- 
tee of  having  invented  this  bogey  as  an  excuse  for 
its  own  despotic  methods.  Kiamil  Pasha  had  ever 
been  the  friend  of  the  English,  and  his  removal  from 
the  Grand  Vizierate  produced  —  to  the  great  regret 
of  the  Young  Turks  —  a  somewhat  bad  impression 
in  England,  the  country  above  all  others  whose 
friendship  is  valued  by  patriotic  Turks.  Those  who 
had  held  that  the  Committee  was  an  illegal  institu- 
tion and  ought  to  be  dissolved  became  alienated  for 
a  while  from  the  men  who  had  been  the  saviours  of 
Turkey;  and  it  is  a  great  pity  that  this  was  so,  for 
at  that  critical  time  the  Young  Turks,  who  never 
before  had  trod  the  tortuous  ways  of  politics,  and 
were  apt  to  fall  into  the  traps  that  were  cunningly 
laid  for  them,  were  much  in  need  of  the  sympa- 
thetic help  and  advice  from  those  whose  experience 
and  knowledge  qualified  them  to  offer  these.  The 
result  is,  I  think,  that  the  Young  Turk  side  of  the 
question  has  not  been  understood  in  England. 

The  Young  Turk  party,  as  represented  by  the 
288 


THE   OPENING   OF   PARLIAMENT 

Committee  of  Union  and  Progress,  is  now  but  one 
of  several  parties  in  Turkey  professing  Liberal  prin- 
ciples. In  Parliament  the  Committee's  nominees 
form  the  large  majority;  but  the  rival  parties, 
though  they  may  be  numerically  small  and  were 
regarded  as  insignificant  when  I  was  in  the  country, 
have  displayed  great  energy  in  winning  supporters 
outside  the  Chamber,  and  are  no  longer  a  negligible 
quantity.  Though  diametrically  opposed  to  each 
other  in  their  principles,  they  appear  to  be  united  in 
their  hatred  and  jealousy  of  the  Young  Turk  party, 
without  whose  self-sacrificing  struggle  for  freedom 
they  would  never  have  had  an  opportunity  of  exist- 
ing at  all.  The  Young  Turks,  as  I  have  explained, 
desired  Ottoman  unity,  perhaps  an  impossible  but 
certainly  a  noble  ideal,  and  it  was  a  disappointment 
to  them  that,  so  soon  as  Parliament  met,  the  Dep- 
uties who  were  not  partisans  of  the  Committee 
divided  themselves  into  distinct  nationalist  groups, 
some  of  them  impracticably  socialistic  in  their  aims, 
others  separatist  at  heart. 

By  far  the  most  powerful  of  these  groups,  a  com- 
posite party,  composed  of  Moslems,  Christians,  and 
others,  calls  itself  the  Liberal  Union.  Whereas  the 
Young  Turks,  while  advocating  equality  without  dis- 
tinction of  race  or  creed,  insists  that  the  supremacy 
of  the  Mussulman  Turks  should  be  safeguarded, 
desires  to  bring  about  a  fusion  of  the  different  ele- 
ments, and  wants  no  greater  administrative  decen- 
tralisation than  is  necessary;  the  Liberal  Union,  on 
the  other  hand,  is  opposed  to  what  it  terms  Turkish 
289 


TURKEY 

Chauvinism,  and  asks  for  a  degree  of  decentralisa- 
tion which  the  Young  Turks  regard  as  dangerous  to 
the  integrity  of  the  Empire.  The  Lil^eral  Union 
therefore  stands  for  home  rule.  It  is  largely  sup- 
ported by  the  Greek  element,  and  tliis  fact  does  not 
commend  it  to  those  who  desire  Ottoman  unity.  It 
is  understood  that  the  party  has  been  well  supplied 
with  funds  by  the  Greek  merchants  in  Turkey,  who 
are  ever  generous  in  their  subscriptions  to  a  Greek 
national  cause;  but  one  cannot  feel  that  the  integ- 
rity of  the]  Ottoman  Empire  is  safe  in  their  hands. 
A  source  of  weakness  to  the  Committee  are  its  self- 
denying  principles,  whereby  there  are  to  be  no 
known  leaders,  no  gratification  of  personal  ambition 
by  its  members,  and  no  seeking  for  the  plums  of 
ofiice.  The  Liberal  Union  has  no  such  principles  of 
self-abnegation,  and  it  has  for  its  leader  the  Alba- 
nian Ismail  Kemal  Bey,  a  victim  of  the  Despotism 
and  for  some  time  an  exile,  a  man  of  marked  ability 
and  of  great  ambition.  He  left  the  Young  Turk 
party  on  the  grounds  that  its  principles  were  not 
sufficiently  Liberal,  and  formed  this  party  of  his 
own,  which  is  the  bitterest  and  most  unscrupulous 
enemy  of  the  Committee  of  Union  and  Progress. 

The  organs  of  the  Liberal  Union  have  been  car- 
rying on  a  press  campaign  against  the  Committee 
of  Union  and  Progress.  Among  other  things  they 
have  asserted  that  the  best  men  have  deserted  the 
Committee,  that  the  heroes  of  the  revolution,  such 
as  Niazi  Bey  and  Enver  Bey,  have  left  it  in  disgust, 
that  reactionaries  and  self-seeking  adventurers  have< 
290 


THE   OPENING   OF    PARLIAMENT 

worked  their  way  into  the  Committee's  centre  and 
are  directing  its  policy.  It  is,  of  course,  possible, 
and  even  probable,  that  some  unworthy  men  have 
been  admitted  into  the  Committee,  but  I  am  certain 
that  they  have  exercised  no  influence,  and  I  am  of 
opinion  that  they  would  not  have  been  allowed  to 
remain  in  it  after  their  true  characters  had  been 
discovered.  When  I  was  in  Turkey  last  autumn  it 
was  not  altogether  an  easy  matter  to  become  a  mem- 
ber of  the  Committee.  On  more  than  one  occasion 
when  I  have  asked  a  member  whether  some  mutual 
friend  was  in  the  Committee,  he  has  replied  in  the 
negative,  explaining  that  the  person  in  question  had 
expressed  his  wish  to  join  the  Committee,  and  that 
he  seemed  a  fitting  person,  but  that  the  Committee 
would  not  elect  him  until  more  was  known  concern- 
ing him.  As  to  the  allegations  made  by  the  organs 
of  the  Liberal  Union,  many  of  the  most  active  mem- 
bers of  the  Committee,  men  obviously  actuated  by 
the  sincerest  patriotism,  are  my  friends,  and  I  know 
that  not  one  of  them  has  left  the  Committee  or  has 
lost  faith  in  it.  I  also  know  that  the  single-minded 
patriots  who  made  the  revolution  are  still  members 
of  the  Committee.  Both  Niazi  Bey  and  Enver  Bey 
have  flatly  contradicted  the  statements  that  were 
made  concerning  them. 

The  Young  Turks  who  write  to  me  from  their 
own  country  or  who  converse  with  me  in  London 
are  unanimous  in  describing  the  situation  as  serious, 
but  in  their  opinion  the  Committee  is  too  strong 
for  its  enemies.  They  say  that  the  Sultan  himself 
291 


TURKEY 

is  on  the  side  of  the  Committee,  and  disapproves 
of  the  machinations  of  the  Liberal  Union.  They 
maintain  that  whatever  professions  of  LiberaHsm 
the  Liberal  Union  may  make  it  is  reactionary  in 
its  policy,  has  known  reactionaries  within  its  ranks, 
and  is  led  by  self-seeking  politicians  lacking  in 
patriotism.  They  allege  that  many  of  the  Greeks 
who  support  the  Liberal  Union,  having  thrived  as 
parasites  of  the  old  regime,  prefer  despotisms  to 
constitutions.  They,  moreover,  explain  that  some 
members  of  the  Liberal  Union  are  exceedingly  clever 
and  cunning  men  who  have  succeeded  in  winning 
over  honest  men  of  the  Young  Turk  party  —  in- 
cluding ulemas  and  other  strict  adherents  of  the 
Mussulman  creed  —  by  specious  arguments  and  mis- 
representations. All  this  seems  probable,  and  it  is 
certain  that  numbers  of  the  Young  Turks,  though 
true  patriots,  are  simple-minded  honest  men  who 
are  likely  to  be  duped  by  the  trained  intriguers 
among  the  Committee's  enemies. 

One  gathers,  therefore,  that  an  incongruous  alli- 
ance of  non-Moslem  socialists,  Greek  separatists, 
reactionaries,  and  misled  upright  Mussulmans  is  op- 
posed to  the  Committee  of  Union  and  Progress.  A 
most  malignant  press  campaign  is  being  carried  on 
against  the  Committee,  and  the  organs  of  the  Com- 
mittee strike  hard  in  return,  with  the  unfortunate 
result  that  on  either  side  an  intense  hatred  has  been 
engendered  which  cannot  but  be  injurious  to  the 
country's  interests,  imperils  the  Constitution,  and 
plays  into  the  hands  of  Turkey's  external  foes. 
292 


THE   OPENING   OF   PARLIAMENT 

The  Committee  of  Union  and  Progress  is  not  rich 
and  has  not  attempted  to  enrich  itself;  but  it  appears 
that  the  Liberal  Union  is  well  supplied  with  funds 
wherewith  to  carry  on  its  campaign,  purchase  news- 
papers, and  buy  the  consciences  of  men.  It  is  known 
that  the  Greeks  have  been  the  largest  contributors 
to  these  funds.  The  Palace  gang  is  also  said  to 
have  supplied  its  share.  When  I  was  in  Constanti- 
nople I  was  informed  that  the  Committee  had  inter- 
cepted correspondence  between  the  Palace  and  a 
certain  Pasha  —  who  was  then  an  exile  in  England 
passing  under  various  aliases  —  and  had  obtained 
proof  that  this  notorious  person  was  the  trustee  of 
large  sums  lying  in  London  banks  which  were 
intended  to  meet  the  expenses  of  intriguing  for 
the  restoration  of  the  old  regime.  Certain  foreign 
Powers,  which  have  no  love  for  the  Young  Turk 
regime,  have  also  been  openly  accused  of  intriguing 
with  the  reactionaries.  If  they  are  innocent  of  this 
they  have  but  themselves  to  blame  for  the  suspicion 
that  attaches  to  them,  for  one  can  only  judge  of 
their  present  policy  by  regarding  their  past.  How 
unscrupulously  Germany  exploited  the  old  regime 
is  known  to  all  the  world.  Some  of  the  Germans 
whom  I  met  in  Constantinople  expressed  their  con- 
viction and  their  hope  that  the  days  of  the  new 
regime  were  numbered.  It  was  interesting  to  hear 
these  men,  who  represented  the  political  commer- 
cialism of  their  country,  frankly  state,  as  if  it  were 
an  incontrovertible  axiom,  that  all  European  peo- 
ples, whether  German,  British,  or  any  other,  had 
293 


TURKEY 

for  their  one  aim  in  Turkey  the  exploitation  of  a 
helpless  country.  The  Germans  are  perfectly  sin- 
cere when  they  assert  that  the  Balkan  Committee 
is  the  paid  agent  of  a  cunning  British  Govern- 
ment, that  the  expression  of  British  sympathy  for 
oppressed  nationalities  is  organised  hypocrisy  with 
the  attainment  of  selfish  ends  as  its  one  motive. 
As  they  look  with  their  cold,  blue  eyes  into  yours 
you  reahse  that  they  quite  believe  these  things. 
The  materialism  of  modern  Germany  has  so  sunk 
into  the  souls  of  her  sons  —  including  some  of  the 
most  illustrious  of  them  —  that  it  has  become  incon- 
ceivable to  them  that  a  nation,  or  a  group  of  the 
citizens  of  that  nation,  can  take  a  disinterested  in- 
terest in  the  affairs  of  other  nations  and  sympathise 
unselfishly  with  its  misfortunes  or  triumphs.  To 
the  Germans  the  enthusiasm  with  which  the  success 
of  the  Young  Turk  cause  was  welcomed  in  England 
was  all  humbug  —  a  cleverly  engineered  manifesta- 
tion of  friendship  whose  object  it  was  to  secure  for 
Great  Britain  the  influence  in  Turkey  which  Ger- 
many had  lost  by  the  revolution  but  confidently 
looked  forward  to  recovering  at  an  early  date  by 
more  straightforward  if  more  brutal  methods. 

The  thirty  years  of  despotism,  by  its  deliberate 
encouragement  of  corruption,  had  demoralised  a 
great  part  of  the  Turkish  nation.  The  cure  cannot 
come  in  a  day,  and  those  well  provided  with  money 
can  still  buy  power  in  Constantinople.  It  was  amid 
very  corrupt  surroundings  that  the  Young  Turks, 
pure  themselves,  set  to  work  to  undertake  the 
294 


THE   OPENING   OF   PARLIAMENT 

regeneration  of  Turkey  and  to  make  the  Empire 
strong.  To  begin  with,  Constantinople  is  full  of 
men  who  have  lived  by  corrupt  practices  all  their 
lives  —  the  men  who  were  blackmailing  spies  under 
the  old  regime,  or  had  belonged  to  that  huge  tribe 
of  useless  functionaries  who  used  to  crowd  every 
public  department  and  had  to  be  bribed  by  those 
whom  business  brought  into  contact  with  them. 
All  these  people,  their  occupation  now  gone,  are 
wandering  about  the  capital  in  very  disconsolate 
mood,  hard  up,  regretting  "the  good  old  days,"  and 
hating  the  purifying  influence  that  has  brought  this 
change  about.  These  men  are  all  reactionaries; 
many  of  them  know  well  how  to  poison  the  minds 
of  ignorant  people  against  the  Committee  with  cun- 
ning inventions.  They  are  largely  responsible  for 
the  growing  popular  dislike  of  the  Committee.  It 
is  very  difficult  for  the  people  in  the  capital  to 
arrive  at  the  truth,  and  they  are  largely  at  the 
mercy  of  paid  agitators  and  schemers.  Even  foreign 
Governments  are  able  to  influence  public  opinion  in 
Turkey.  The  Germans  and  Austrians  possess  a  use- 
ful piece  of  machinery  for  the  dissemination  of  news 
to  serve  their  own  interests  in  the  shape  of  a  tele- 
graphic agency  which  supplies  Constantinople  with 
practically  all  its  foreign  information,  and  sells  its 
despatches  by  the  column  to  the  newspapers  of  that 
city  at  a  low  rate  that  cannot  possibly  pay  the 
expenses  of  the  service.  The  news  which  purports 
to  come  from  London  is  often  of  an  astonishing 
character. 

295 


TURKEY 

I  understand  that  the  Committee  of  Union  and 
Progress  is  now  about  to  reorganise  its  constitution 
and  convert  itself  into  what  we  should  call  a  Parlia- 
mentary party;  but  under  whatever  name  it  con- 
tinues its  existence  it  is  to  be  hoped  that  this  body 
of  men,  which  has  done  such  great  and  noble  work 
for  Turkey,  which  contains  so  many  men  of  single- 
minded,  self-sacrificing  patriotism,  will  remain  the 
dominating  party  in  the  country.  But  it  will  have 
to  be  as  the  strong  man  armed  and  ever  watchful, 
for  its  enemies  are  many  and  have  the  money 
wherewith,  alas!  the  consciences  of  both  men  and 
newspapers  can  still  be  purchased  in  Turkey. 


S96 


CHAPTER    XXI 

THE   NEW   SULTAN 

THE  greater  part  of  this  book  was  in  the  press, 
and  the  preceding  chapter,  which  was  to 
have  been  the  final  one,  lacked  but  a  few 
concluding  paragraphs  to  bring  my  work  to  a  close, 
when  the  news  reached  London  that  a  revolution 
had  broken  out  in  Constantinople.  On  that  event- 
ful thirteenth  of  April  I  was  lunching  in  a  literary 
club  off  the  Strand  with  two  well-known  members 
of  the  Young  Turk  party.  The  information  con- 
veyed by  an  early  issue  of  a  so-called  evening  paper 
was  scanty,  and  we  hoped  that  nothing  worse  had 
occurred  than  one  of  those  mutinous  demonstrations 
on  the  part  of  the  Sultan's  pampered  Body-guard 
which  the  Young  Turks  have  already  proved  them- 
selves capable  of  suppressing  with  promptitude  and 
vigour.  But  later  and  fuller  information  brought 
anger  and  sorrow  to  the  friends  of  Turkey:  nearly 
the  whole  garrison  of  the  capital  had  risen  against 
the  Government;  the  soldiers  were  killing  their 
young  oflScers;  fanatical  mobs  were  hunting  out  the 
members  of  the  Young  Turk  party  to  murder  them; 
the  Committee  of  Union  and  Progress,  in  Constan- 
tinople at  any  rate,  was  at  the  feet  of  its  enemies. 
297 


TURKEY 

The  members  of  the  Committee  were  fleeing  for 
their  hves  from  their  fellow-countrymen,  whom  they 
had  saved  from  a  hated  despotism.  A  few  months 
ago  I  heard  these  same  Constantinople  mobs  shout- 
ing themselves  hoarse  with  cries  of  "Long  live  the 
Committee  of  Union  and  Progress!"  and  all  seemed 
grateful  to  this  band  of  men  who,  animated  by 
single-minded  patriotism  and  a  spirit  of  self-sac- 
rifice, had  organised  the  revolution.  But  a  large 
portion  of  the  population  of  Constantinople  is  a 
very  vile  thing;  it  is  made  up  of  everything  that  is 
worst  of  the  various  races  of  the  Levant  and  of 
regions  farther  east.  The  fanatical  Kurds  are  ever 
ready  to  join  in  any  rising  that  gives  them  the  op- 
portunity of  pillage  and  murder;  the  greater  part  of 
the  Christian  population  is  too  cowardly  to  defend 
itself;  here,  too,  are  collected  all  the  ex-spies  and 
other  corrupt  products  of  the  old  regime.  One  is 
inclined  to  think  that  one  of  the  chief  lessons  to  be 
learnt  by  the  Young  Turks  from  the  counter-revo- 
lution is  that  the  seat  of  Government  might  with 
advantage  be  removed  from  Constantinople  to  some 
place  at  a  considerable  distance  from  it.  My  Turk- 
ish friends,  I  may  state  here,  were  perfectlj^  confi- 
dent, through  those  mid-April  days  when  Turkey's 
future  seemed  so  dark,  that  the  triumph  of  the 
reactionaries  would  be  but  short-Hved,  that  right 
would  prevail,  and  that  within  a  few  days  the  prov- 
inces, strongly  supporting  the  Young  Turk  cause, 
would  compel  the  capital  to  submit  to  their  will. 

I  have  postponed  the  writing  of  this  final  chapter 
298 


THE    NEW    SULTAN 

until  the  last  possible  moment,  in  order  that  I  might 
obtain  a  perspective  view  of  these  strange  happen- 
ings in  the  Turkish  capital.  As  may  be  gathered 
from  the  preceding  chapter,  there  was  a  good  deal  of 
uneasiness  in  Constantinople  for  some  time  before 
the  outbreak  of  the  13th.  The  bitter  strife  between 
the  Committee  of  Union  and  Progress  and  the 
Liberal  Union  weakened  the  constitutional  cause.  A 
newly  formed  society  called  the  Jemiyet-Mohamme- 
dieh  (the  League  of  Mohammed)  was  obtaining  a 
hold  upon  the  Moslem  population.  It  professed  to  be 
in  favour  of  the  Constitution,  but  called  for  a  strict 
application  of  the  Sheriat  or  vSacred  Law.  It  was 
the  enemy  of  the  Committee  of  Union  and  Progress, 
maintaining  that  the  members  of  the  Committee, 
including  the  young  army  officers,  did  not  observe 
the  precepts  of  the  Koran,  and  by  their  irreligious 
ways  set  a  bad  example  to  the  rank  and  file.  These 
movements  afforded  an  opportunity  for  mischief 
to  the  reactionaries,  the  men  who  cared  little  for 
religion  or  country,  but  desired  the  return  of  the 
absolutism  with  the  corruption  on  which  they  had 
lived.  So  men  from  the  Palace,  together  with  ex- 
spies  and  dishonest  Government  employes  who  had 
been  deprived  of  their  posts  by  the  new  regime, 
began  to  intrigue  with  success,  and  were  much 
helped  by  the  fact  that  many  of  their  own  base 
order  had  wormed  themselves  both  into  the  Liberal 
Union  and  the  Mohammedan  League. 

The  Liberal  Union  apparently  took  the  lead  in  the 
plot  against  the  Government,  and  it  became  obvious 
299 


TURKEY 

that  it  was  well  provided  with  funds.  I  am  told 
that  for  a  considerable  time  before  the  outbreak  the 
members  of  this  association  used  to  frequent  the 
principal  hotel  in  Pera,  and  made  of  it  a  sort  of 
head-quarters.  Here,  spending  plenty  of  money, 
they  used  to  converse  plausibly  with  foreign  visi- 
tors, including  the  correspondents  of  newspapers; 
for  it  was  part  of  their  aim  to  gain  foreign 
sympathy  —  and  especially  English  sympathy  —  for 
their  cause;  their  efforts  were  attended  with  some 
success,  for  while  plotting  with  reaction  they  prated 
of  liberty,  and  their  arguments  to  the  effect  that  in 
the  Committee  of  Union  and  Progress  Turkey  had 
but  found  a  new  despotism  in  place  of  the  old  one 
were  convincing  to  many. 

The  acrimony  of  the  strife  between  the  two  par- 
ties was  much  intensified  by  the  assassination  of  the 
editor  of  a  Liberal  newspaper,  presumably  by  some 
one  in  sympathy  with  the  Committee;  and  as  it  be- 
came clear  that  the  loyalty  of  the  First  Army  Corps, 
forming  the  garrison  of  Constantinople,  was  being 
undermined  by  the  agents  of  reaction.  General 
Mukhtar  Pasha,  who  was  in  command  of  that  army 
corps,  began  to  take  due  precautions;  on  April  12 
he  issued  most  stringent  orders  to  his  men,  explain- 
ing to  them  that  they  were  to  shoot  down  even  sojtas 
and  other  civilians  if  ordered  to  do  so  by  their 
officers.  I  have  already  explained  that  the  fidelity 
to  the  Constitution  of  this  army  corps,  which 
included  the  pampered  Palace  Guards,  had  been 
doubtful  from  the  beginning.  The  Young  Turks, 
300 


THE    NEW    SULTAN 

after  the  mutiny  in  November,  had  removed  some 
of  the  least  rehable  battahons  and  had  replaced 
them  with  troops  from  Salonica.  They  had  intended 
greatly  to  reduce  the  Imperial  Guard  itself,  but  had 
refrained  from  doing  so  at  the  earnest  wish  of  the 
Sultan.  I  have  pointed  out  that  before  the  revo- 
lution these  Palace  troops  were  officered  with  men 
risen  from  their  own  ranks  —  alaili  —  ignorant  and 
faithful  men  who  could  be  relied  on  to  support 
their  benevolent  master,  the  Sultan.  The  Young 
Turks  had  removed  these  rankers,  replacing  them 
with  mehtehliSy  officers  who  have  passed  through  the 
military  schools,  and  therefore  to  a  man  are  support- 
ers of  the  Young  Turk  party,  many  of  them  being 
members  of  the  Committee.  There  is  no  doubt 
that  the  rank  and  file  bitterly  resented  this  inno- 
vation, and  there  grew  up  a  sullen  discontent,  which 
subtle  agitators  who  appealed  to  Mussulman  fanat- 
icism could  easily  fan  into  a  flame.  The  hodjas 
and  softas  were  assiduously  preaching  in  the  bar- 
racks that  the  Committee  was  endangering  the 
Moslem  faith,  and  the  minds  of  the  men  became 
poisoned  against  their  officers. 

But  though  there  was  uneasiness  in  the  capital, 
the  counter-revolution  came  to  the  citizens  as  a 
complete  surprise.  In  the  afternoon  of  the  12th  a 
British  officer,  who  had  just  arrived  in  the  capital, 
visited  the  various  barracks,  and  found  the  troops 
peacefully  drilling  or  performing  their  other  ordinary 
duties,  the  officers  and  men  alike  seeming  happy 
and  contented,  and  an  Inspector  of  Police  of  great 
301 


TURKEY 

experience  informed  him  that  the  city  had  never 
been  more  quiet  and  orderly.  During  the  early 
hours  of  the  13th,  while  it  was  still  dark,  people 
were  awakened  by  the  tramp  of  soldiery  in  the 
streets  (successive  bodies  of  men  marching  in 
silence),  wondered  a  little  what  these  unwonted 
movements  signified,  and  then  went  to  sleep  again. 
When  they  went  out  a  few  hours  later  the  citizens 
found  the  whole  city  at  the  mercy  of  nearly  twenty 
thousand  mutinous  troops.  The  plot  had  been 
carefully  organised  with  the  same  extraordinary 
secrecy  that  had  characterised  the  Young  Turk 
revolution  of  the  previous  July,  and  no  one  save 
those  concerned  had  any  suspicion  as  to  what  was 
about  to  happen. 

Before  dawn  the  troops,  after  shooting  some  of 
their  officers  and  binding  and  imprisoning  others, 
marched  through  the  streets  under  the  command  of 
their  non-commissioned  officers,  and  concentrated 
in  the  neighbourhood  of  the  House  of  Parliament. 
The  Salonica  Chasseurs,  who,  as  Macedonian  troops, 
had  been  regarded  as  being  wholly  loysii  to  the 
Young  Turk  cause,  took  a  leading  part  in  the  revolt. 
A  large  number  of  marines  also  joined  the  mutineers 
and  were  guilty  of  the  murder  of  many  officers. 
When  the  sun  rose  the  square  outside  the  Par- 
liament House  and  the  Mosque  of  St.  Sophia  was 
packed  with  the  mutineers  and  a  great  number  of 
softas  and  hodjas  in  their  turbans  and  flowing  robes, 
who  harangued  the  soldiers  and  inflamed  their 
fanatical  zeal.  In  front  of  St.  Sophia  waved  the 
302 


THE    NEW    SULTAN 

red  and  green  banner  of  the  Sheriat.  Brave  oflScers 
who  occasionally  arrived  to  remonstrate  with  their 
men  were  immediately  killed. 

It  was  apparent  that  the  revolt  had  been  very 
carefully  planned,  and  that  the  troops  had  received 
detailed  instructions  which  they  obeyed  to  the  let- 
ter, and  there  can  be  no  doubt  that  they  were  assured 
that  they  were  doing  as  the  Padishah  wished  them 
to  do.  Bodies  of  troops  were  detached  to  seize  the 
bridges  and  the  telegraph  offices,  and  dispositions 
were  made  to  meet  resistance  from  any  point.  It 
was  made  quite  clear  that  the  main  object  of  the 
counter-revolution  was  the  destruction  of  the  Com- 
mittee of  Union  and  Progress;  for,  while  killing  offi- 
cers and  others  who  belonged  to  that  association, 
the  soldiers  preserved  order,  in  no  way  interfered 
with  the  civilian  population,  and  spoke  reassuring 
words  to  the  Christians  whom  they  met.  But  not- 
withstanding this,  there  was,  of  course,  a  panic  in 
the  city,  and  all  the  shops  put  up  their  shutters. 
Mobs  of  Mussulmans  of  the  dangerous  class,  Kurds 
and  Lazes,  armed  with  pistols  and  clubs,  and  in 
many  cases  with  rifles,  joined  the  soldiery;  but 
even  these  had  apparently  been  given  the  word 
that  excesses  would  damage  the  cause  of  the  faith- 
ful, for  the  massacres  and  pillage  which  might  have 
been  expected  from  this  rough  and  fanatical  element 
of  the  population  did  not  occur. 

The  conspirators  had  not  secured  the  support  of 
the  entire  garrison  of  Constantinople;  for  troops 
loyal  to  the  Government  —  cavalry,  artillery,  and 
303 


TURKEY 

infantry  —  were  holding  the  Ministry  of  War  on 
the  morning  of  the  13th.  General  Mukhtar  Pasha, 
the  commander  of  the  First  Army  Corps,  was  on 
duty  on  the  Asiatic  side  of  the  Bosphorus,  and  he 
has  told  an  interviewer  that  the  signal  for  revolu- 
tion had  been  purposely  given  while  he  was  absent. 
So  soon  as  he  was  informed  as  to  what  was  hap- 
pening he  hurried  back  to  Stamboul,  and  on  reach- 
ing head-quarters  on  the  morning  of  the  13th  found 
the  Ministry  of  War  surrounded  by  a  wildly  excited 
mob.  He  collected  the  troops  who  had  not  joined 
the  mutineers  and  dispersed  the  crowd  with  his  cav- 
alry. He  states  that  had  he  been  given  full  powers 
he  could  have  nipped  the  revolt  in  the  bud,  and 
that  had  the  Ministry  taken  the  proper  measures  in 
time  the  mutiny  could  have  been  mastered  without 
bloodshed.  But  Mukhtar  was  expressly  impeded 
from  taking  energetic  action  and,  as  the  natural 
result,  his  own  troops  began  to  desert  him.  When 
Mukhtar  heard  that  the  Sultan  had  issued  an  am- 
nesty to  the  mutineers  he  realised  that  he  could 
do  no  more,  and  resigned  his  command.  He  only 
escaped  the  death  that  had  been  prepared  for  him 
by  taking  a  circuitous  route,  and  ultimately  found 
a  refuge  on  a  foreign  man-of-war. 

The  demands  that  were  made  by  the  mutineers 
showed  pretty  conclusively  that  the  plot  had  been 
arranged  by  the  Liberal  Union  working  hand  in 
hand  with  reactionaries  and  fanatics.  The  troops 
cheered  loudly  for  the  Sultan,  called  for  the  strict 
application  of  the  Sacred  Law,  the  overthrow  of 
304 


THE    NEW    SULTAN 

the  Government,  the  destruction  of  the  Commit- 
tee, and  the  removal  of  the  officers  of  the  Salonica 
Chasseurs  and  the  marines.  The  following  specific 
demands,  which  could  never  have  been  thought  out 
by  the  ignorant  soldiers,  who  know  nothing  of  poli- 
tics, were  also  put  forward  by  them  —  demands 
which  had  obviously  been  prompted  by  the  Liberal 
Union  —  the  dismissal  of  the  Grand  Vizier,  the 
Ministers  of  War  and  Marine,  the  commander  of 
the  First  Army  Corps,  and  the  President  of  the 
Chamber  of  Deputies;  the  removal  from  Constan- 
tinople of  the  editor  of  the  Young  Turk  newspaper, 
the  Tannin,  and  the  expulsion  of  Rahmi  Bey  and 
Djavid  Bey,  Deputies  for  Salonica,  and  members 
of  the  Committee  of  Union  and  Progress.  The  sol- 
diers also  asked  that  Ismail  Kemal  Bey,  the  leader 
of  the  Liberal  Union,  and  his  supporter,  Zohrab 
Bey,  should  be  made  President  and  Vice-President 
of  the  Chamber  of  Deputies.  Their  acts  as  well 
as  their  words  proved  who  had  instigated  them  to 
revolt;  they  murdered  Nazim  Pasha,  the  Minister 
of  Justice,  and  wounded  the  Minister  of  Marine; 
they  killed  the  Emir  Mohammed  Arslan,  a  highly 
respected  Deputy,  as  he  was  entering  the  House, 
mistaking  him  for  the  editor  of  the  Tannin,  and 
they  destroyed  the  offices  of  the  Committee  of 
Union  and  Progress,  as  well  as  those  of  its  organs, 
the  Shura-i-Ummet  and  the  Tannin. 

During  April  13  the  reactionaries  ruled  Constan- 
tinople; the  members  of  the  Committee  of  Union 
and   Progress  had  to  take  to  flight  or  hide  them- 
305 


TURKEY 

selves,  and  several  of  the  Generals  crossed  the 
Bosphorus  and  took  refuge  in  the  house  of  a 
well-known  British  merchant.  The  Liberal  Union, 
which  had  let  loose  the  forces  of  disorder,  enjoyed 
but  a  short  triumph.  In  the  evening  of  the  13th 
some  Deputies  met  in  the  House  and  elected  the 
Liberal  Union  leader,  Ismail  Kemal  Bey,  as  Presi- 
dent of  the  Chamber  —  an  illegal  proceeding,  as 
there  was  no  quorum,  and  the  Young  Turk  mem- 
bers who  represented  the  parliamentary  majority 
naturally  were  not  present.  In  the  course  of  the 
day  Ismail  Kemal  and  some  members  of  the  Lib- 
eral Union  went  to  the  Yildiz  and  begged  the  Sul- 
tan to  appoint  Kiamil  Pasha,  who  was  a  supporter 
of  the  Union,  as  Grand  Vizier,  but  the  Sultan  re- 
fused to  listen  to  their  advice.  From  this  time  the 
Liberal  Union  lost  its  hold  on  the  people,  and  was 
deserted  by  many  members  of  the  party  who  were 
good  patriots  and  adherents  of  the  Constitution,  for 
these  recognised  and  were  horrified  at  the  mischief 
that  had  been  wrought  by  the  self-seeking  wire- 
pullers of  this  so-called  "Liberal"  organisation. 

And  in  the  meanwhile  all  eyes  were  turned  anx- 
iously to  the  Yildiz  to  discover  what  would  be  the 
attitude  of  the  inscrutable  monarch  at  this  crisis. 
In  the  evening  of  the  13th,  when  the  Sultan  granted 
an  amnesty  to  the  mutineers,  called  them  his  chil- 
dren, and  yielded  to  many  of  their  demands,  there 
were  lovers  of  liberty  who  feared  the  worst;  but 
when  it  became  known  that  the  Sultan  had  not 
taken  immediate  advantage  of  the  situation  to 
306 


THE    NEW    SULTAN 

restore  absolutism,  but,  on  the  contrary,  on  the 
resignation  of  the  Young  Turk  Ministry  in  the 
afternoon,  had  appointed  Tewfik  Pasha  as  Grand 
Vizier  and  Edhem  Pasha  as  Minister  of  War,  great 
rehef  was  felt;  for  these  were  two  trusted  and  able 
men,  who,  though  they  were  no  partisans  of  this  or 
that  political  group,  were  undoubtedly  men  of  Lib- 
eral principles  and  no  creatures  of  the  Despotism. 
So  the  Constitutionalists  took  heart,  and  they  were 
still  more  reassured  when  on  the  15th  Nazim  Pasha 
was  appointed  Commander  of  the  First  Army  Corps 
and  Assistant  Minister  of  War.  The  appointment 
of  Nazim  Pasha  as  Minister  of  War  in  February 
last  had  roused  the  opposition  of  the  Committee  of 
Union  and  Progress,  and  was  one  of  the  chief  causes 
of  the  fall  of  Kiamil  Pasha;  but,  as  the  Young 
Turks  clearly  explained  at  the  time,  it  was  with 
Kiamil's  policy  that  they  found  fault;  Nazim  him- 
self was  admired  and  respected  by  them  as  a  fine 
soldier  and  a  man  of  distinctly  Liberal  views,  for 
which  the  Palace  had  made  him  suffer  in  his  time. 
It  was  therefore  recognised  that  the  newly  created 
temporary  Government  was  at  any  rate  not  a  reac- 
tionary one,  and  that  the  cause  of  liberty,  though 
still  in  great  peril,  was  not  yet  lost. 

For  twenty-four  hours  the  soldiers  celebrated 
their  victory  by  firing  off  their  rifles  in  the  streets, 
thereby  accidentally  killing  and  wounding  a  good 
many  people.  It  was  noticed  that  they  had  plenty 
of  money  to  spend,  and  it  was  evident  that  a  large 
sum  had  been  provided  by  the  organisers  of  the  con- 
307 


TURKEY 

spiracy  to  buy  the  support  of  the  army.  As  many 
of  the  men  confessed  afterwards,  they  had  suc- 
cumbed to  gifts  of  money  and  had  been  misled  by 
lying  preachers  who  approached  them  in  the  name 
of  religion.  On  April  15  Nazim  Pasha,  who  is  pop- 
ular with  the  army,  though  a  strict  disciplinarian, 
announced  that  the  severest  punishment  would  be 
inflicted  on  any  soldiers  who  fired  in  the  streets, 
and  explained  that  the  Sultan's  amnesty  only  pro- 
tected them  from  punishment  for  crimes  committed 
during  the  two  previous  days.  Next  he  released  all 
officers  who  had  been  imprisoned  by  the  mutineers, 
and  warned  the  soldiers  that  no  mercy  would  be 
shown  to  those  who  molested  these  officers  or  any 
of  the  civilian  population.  The  bulk  of  the  troops 
now  returned  to  their  barracks,  order  was  restored, 
and  outwardly  Constantinople  was  once  again  a  city 
of  peace. 

But  a  crime  had  been  committed  with  what  far- 
reaching  evil  results  to  Turkey  no  man  knows  yet. 
This  wanton  conspiracy,  doomed  to  failure  from 
the  beginning,  not  only  threatened  the  destruction 
of  the  Constitution,  but,  stirring  up  all  the  forces 
of  reaction,  sent  a  wave  of  fanaticism  sweeping 
through  Asia  that  it  will  be  difficult  indeed  to  stem. 
It  has  brought  about  the  massacre  of  Christians, 
civil  war,  the  fratricidal  fighting  between  Turkish 
armies,  the  menace  of  foreign  intervention,  and  the 
possibility  of  the  disintegration  of  the  Empire  itself. 
The  counter-revolution  soon  bore  its  evil  fruit.  On 
April  15,  telegrams  from  Mersina,  in  Asia  Minor, 
308 


THE    NEW    SULTAN 

announced  the  beginning  of  those  massacres  which 
have  cost  the  Hves  of  thousands  of  Armenians.  It 
is  probable  that  the  reactionaries  planned  these  mas- 
sacres, for  the  fact  that  certain  notable  Armenians 
were  warned  as  to  what  was  about  to  happen  by  their 
Moslem  friends,  disproves  the  theory  that  a  chance 
affray  was  responsible  for  all  this  slaughter;  at  any 
rate  the  outbreak  of  murderous  fanaticism  would 
have  been  suppressed  speedily  had  not  the  authority 
of  the  Government  officials  on  the  spot  been  destroyed 
by  the  revolt  in  the  capital.  Then  came  the  news  of 
a  rising  of  the  Moslem  Albanians,  whom  the  agents 
of  reaction  had  converted  into  the  bitter  enemies  of 
the  Young  Turks.  During  these  days  of  doubt  and 
fear  for  patriotic  Turks,  but  one  event  of  hopeful 
augury  occurred.  On  April  19  the  Turko-Bulga- 
rian  Protocol,  by  which  Turkey  recognised  Bulgaria's 
independence,  was  signed.  The  provisional  Govern- 
ment had  acted  wisely,  for  thus  was  removed  the 
danger  of  a  war  with  Bulgaria  at  this  very  critical  time. 
A  member  of  the  Young  Turk  party  said  to  me: 
*'If  the  reactionaries  imagine  that  we  will  take  this 
lying  down  they  will  find  themselves  much  mistaken. 
We  are  very  strong:  practically  all  European  Turkey 
is  on  our  side,  and  you  will  see  that  we  will  now  set 
to  work  to  crush  the  power  of  the  reactionaries  once 
and  for  all."  And  so  indeed  it  has  come  to  pass. 
When  the  news  of  the  counter-revolution  reached 
Salonica,  the  city  that  is  proud  that  it  was  the  cra- 
dle of  Turkey's  liberty,  the  inhabitants  —  Moslems, 
Christians,  and  Jews  —  were  infuriated,  and  called 
309 


TURKEY 

for  an  immediate  march  upon  Constantinople.  To 
Salonica  flocked  the  oflScers  and  other  members  of 
the  Committee  who  had  escaped  from  the  capital, 
and  thither,  too,  hurried  the  two  gallant  young 
leaders  of  the  July  revolution,  Enver  Bey  and 
Hakki  Bey,  who  at  the  time  were  the  Turkish 
military  attaches  in  Berlin  and  Vienna  respectively. 
Niazi  Bey,  too,  in  Monastir,  sent  the  word  to  his 
Albanian  and  Bulgarian  friends  to  collect  volun- 
teers, and  he  himself,  with  the  regulars  under  his 
command,  took  train  to  Salonica.  And  now  it 
was  made  manifest  that  Macedonia,  at  any  rate, 
remained  faithful  to  the  Constitution  and  to  the 
Young  Turk  party.  The  men  of  the  Third  Army 
Corps  were  eager  to  be  led  against  the  traitorous 
reactionaries  of  the  capital;  the  civilian  Moslems 
formed  themselves  into  bands  oi  fedais;  all  the  Bul- 
garian clubs  in  Macedonia  declared  themselves  the 
supporters  of  the  Young  Turk  cause,  and  their 
members  expressed  their  readiness  to  die  in  defence 
of  the  Constitution,  and  this  despite  the  fact  that 
the  Bulgarians  had  not  been  treated  fairly  during 
the  Parliamentary  elections;  the  famous  Bulgarian 
chiefs,  Sandansky  and  Panitza,  and  other  Bulgarian 
leaders,  brought  their  bands  of  enthusiastic  moun- 
taineers to  Salonica;  the  Albanian  Christian  moun- 
tain tribes,  including  my  old  friends  the  Miridites, 
sent  their  armed  men  to  fight  for  the  cause;  the 
Jews  volunteered  in  numbers;  indeed,  of  the  various 
elements  composing  the  population  of  Macedonia 
the  Greeks  alone  appear  to  have  held  aloof. 
310 


THE    NEW    SULTAN 

In  Constantinople  the  reactionaries,  notwith- 
standing the  appointment  of  a  Ministry  that  sup- 
ported the  Constitution,  had  taken  it  for  granted 
that  the  success  of  their  cause  was  assured,  and, 
having  seduced  the  garrison  to  their  side,  they  but 
awaited  the  order  of  the  Sultan  to  complete  their 
work  and  give  the  coup  de  grace  to  the  regime  of 
liberty.  They  had  apparently  omitted  to  consider 
whether  the  rest  of  Turkey  would  support  their 
action;  for  the  news  from  Macedonia  came  as  a 
shocking  surprise  to  them,  and  irritated  the  well- 
named  Volkan,  the  organ  of  the  League  of  Moham- 
med, into  an  eruption  of  furious  articles  of  a  highly 
inflammatory  and  dangerous  character.  First  came 
the  news  from  Salonica  that  the  Committee  of  Union 
and  Progress  refused  to  acknowledge  the  new  Gov- 
ernment, and  that  the  Macedonians  intended  to 
march  upon  Constantinople.  On  April  16  a  tele- 
gram announced  that  the  first  sixteen  battalions  of 
the  Constitutional  army  (the  Third  Army  Corps) 
had  already  entrained  at  Salonica.  Next  it  became 
known  that  the  Second  Army  Corps  at  Adrianople 
had  agreed  to  support  the  Salonica  force.  On  the 
19th  the  advanced  patrols  of  the  avenging  Mace- 
donian army  were  at  St.  Stefano  within  two  leagues 
of  the  capital.  It  was  all  in  vain  that  the  Govern- 
ment sent  telegrams  and  deputations  to  Salonica 
to  reassure  the  Young  Turks  and  to  explain  that 
the  Constitution  was  in  no  danger,  and  would  be 
respected  by  the  Sultan  and  his  new  Ministry,  for 
the  Young  Turks  could  not  be  brought  to  believe 
311 


TURKEY 

that  the  Constitution  was  secure  while  the  capital 
was  full  of  triumphant  reactionaries  and  troops  who 
had  been  bought  over  to  their  cause,  acting  in  the 
name  of  a  Sultan  whom  it  would  be  folly  to  trust 
again. 

So  the  Parliamentary  troops  began  to  concentrate 
round  the  capital,  and  the  reactionaries  lost  heart. 
The  Palace  spies  and  other  deeply  compromised  per- 
sons thought  it  prudent  to  flee  from  the  capital.  A 
friend  of  mine,  writing  from  Constantinople,  tells  me 
that  a  panic  seized  the  people,  including  many  Euro- 
peans, and  that  their  hurried  departure  to  catch  any 
steamer  in  the  port,  bound  for  no  matter  where, 
was  comic,  but  lacking  in  dignity.  On  the  other 
hand,  the  different  Liberal  political  groups,  Moslem, 
Christian,  and  Jew,  agreed  to  put  aside  their  party 
differences  and  to  unite  in  upholding  the  Constitu- 
tion. The  Committee  of  Union  and  Progress  re- 
covered much  of  the  influence  and  popularity  that  it 
had  lost,  for  it  was  recognised  that  this  organisation 
alone  had  the  power  behind  it  to  enforce  the  will  of 
the  people  and  defeat  the  reactionaries.  It  became 
plain,  too,  that  the  Ministry  itself  was  co-operating 
with  the  leaders  of  the  Macedonian  army,  so  as  to 
come  to  some  arrangement  that  would  safeguard  the 
Constitution  and  at  the  same  time  prevent,  if  pos- 
sible, the  shedding  of  blood.  As  for  the  Sultan,  he 
remained  in  the  Yildiz,  inscrutable  as  ever,  and  had 
frequent  conferences  with  Tewfik  Pasha,  his  Grand 
Vizier,  who  announced  that  "His  Sublime  Majesty 
awaits  benevolently  the  arrival  of  the  so-called  con- 
312 


THE    NEW    SULTAN 

stitutional  army.  He  has  nothing  to  gain  or  fear, 
since  His  SubHmity  is  for  the  Constitution  and  is  its 
supreme  guardian." 

No  preparations  for  defence  or  resistance  of  any 
sort  were  made  by  the  Government,  and  Nazim 
Pasha  and  the  other  Generals  in  the  capital  con- 
fined themselves  to  maintaining  order  in  the  garri- 
son and  preventing  any  fanatical  outbreak  on  the 
part  of  the  rough  element  of  the  Moslem  population. 
Of  the  troops  forming  the  garrison  a  considerable 
proportion  repented  that  they  had  taken  part  in  the 
mutiny,  and,  acknowledging  that  they  had  been  mis- 
led by  lies,  were  ready  to  take  the  oath  of  fidelity 
to  the  Constitution;  but,  on  the  other  hand,  a  great 
many,  including  the  six  thousand  who  were  guard- 
ing the  Yildiz,  were  faithful  to  those  who  had  de- 
ceived and  bribed  them,  and  were  prepared  to  die 
for  the  Sultan. 

General  Husni  Pasha  rapidly  brought  up  the 
troops  that  were  to  invest  the  capital,  the  bulk  of 
them  belonging  to  the  Third  Army  Corps;  but  the 
force  also  included  contingents  from  the  Second,  or 
Adrianople,  Army  Corps  and  numbers  of  volunteers, 
for  the  most  part  Moslem  Macedonians,  Bulgarians, 
and  Albanians,  wild-looking  men  from  the  moun- 
tains clad  in  their  picturesque  native  dress.  Gen- 
eral Mahmut  Shevket  Pasha,  the  commander  of  the 
Third  Army  Corps,  directed  the  operations,  and  on 
the  21st  he  left  Salonica  for  the  front  to  take  over 
the  supreme  command  of  the  army  of  investment. 
Foreign  military  observers  have  spoken  in  terms  of 
313 


TURKEY 

highest  praise  of  the  rapidity  with  which  the  Third 
Army  Corps  was  mobihsed,  the  admirable  organisa- 
tion, the  discipHne,  morale,  and  excellent  condition  of 
the  troops,  the  arrangements  for  the  supply  of  food, 
the  completeness  of  the  equipment  of  the  force, 
which  included  field  hospitals,  field  telegraphs,  and 
other  details.  The  Turkish  army  has  profited  much 
by  the  splendid  training  of  Baron  von  der  Goltz  and 
the  German  oflScers  under  him,  and  has  become  a 
fighting  machine  which  will  be  able  to  give  a  very 
good  account  of  itself  if  the  enemies  of  Turkey  ven- 
ture to  attack  her. 

It  is  unnecessary  to  give  an  account  here  of  the 
various  negotiations  which  were  carried  on  between 
the  Ministry  in  Constantinople  and  the  advancing 
army,  for  it  is  clear  that  these  were  mostly  simu- 
lated with  the  object  of  keeping  the  capital  quiet 
and  gaining  time  until  Shevket  Pasha  had  collected 
a  force  sufficiently  large  to  overawe  the  reactionary 
portion  of  the  garrison  and  so  secure  the  entry  and 
occupation  of  Constantinople  with  as  little  blood- 
shed as  possible.  Of  the  many  statements  made  at 
this  time  by  the  Ministry  and  the  Young  Turk 
leaders,  one  stands  out  as  important  and  significant. 
The  Committee  of  Union  and  Progress,  recognising 
that  this  was  no  time  for  any  political  party  to 
assert  itself,  and  that  all  friends  of  liberty  should 
unite  to  save  the  Constitution,  announced  its  inten- 
tion of  remaining  completely  in  the  background  and 
not  intervening  in  any  way,  while  the  army,  acting 
quite  independently,  would  free  the  Constitution 
314 


THE    NEW    SULTAN 

from  the  fetters  which  traitors  had  placed  upon  it. 
The  army,  it  was  maintained,  had  nothing  to  do 
with  poUtics  or  parties.  It  was  the  army  of  the 
nation,  and  it  was  for  Shevket  Pasha,  representing 
the  army,  to  redeem  its  honour  by  entering  the 
capital,  proclaiming  martial  law,  and  severely  pun- 
ishing the  traitors  who  had  corrupted  the  soldiers 
and  used  them  to  forward  their  reactionary  schemes. 

The  army  of  investment  increased  in  numbers 
daily,  and  on  April  22  a  semi-circle  of  thirty  thou- 
sand men  enclosed  Constantinople  on  its  land  side 
while  men-of-war  guarded  its  sea  approaches.  On 
that  day  a  National  Assembly,  composed  of  Sena- 
tors and  Deputies,  with  Said  Pasha  as  President, 
held  a  secret  session  at  St.  Stefano,  within  the  lines 
of  the  investing  army,  and  apparently  agreed  on  the 
deposition  of  the  Sultan.  On  Friday,  April  23,  Ab- 
dul Hamid,  for  the  last  time,  was  the  central  figure 
of  the  Selamlik  and  drove  to  the  mosque  between 
faithful  Guards  and  a  crowd  of  many  thousands  of 
his  subjects.  Only  ten  days  had  passed  since  the 
counter-revolution  had  restored  to  him  much  of  his 
former  despotic  power,  but  the  action  of  the  Young 
Turks  was  quick  and  decisive,  and  this  was  to  be 
the  last  day  of  his  long  and  calamitous  reign. 

Shevket  Pasha,  having  completed  his  dispositions, 
lost  no  time  in  further  parleying,  recognising  that 
to  do  as  speedily  as  possible  what  had  to  be  done 
w^ould  probably  save  much  bloodshed  in  the  capital, 
and  prevent  the  further  spreading  of  the  dangerous 
reactionary  movements  in  Asia  Minor  and  Albania. 
315 


TURKEY 

At  three  in  the  morning  of  April  24  the  Macedo- 
nian troops,  regulars  and  volunteers,  began  to  work 
their  way  into  the  city  from  all  sides,  and  proceeded 
to  occupy  Stamboul,  Galata,  and  Pera.  They  en- 
tered Stamboul  by  the  principal  gates  that  pierce 
the  ancient  walls,  encountering  resistance  at  one 
gate  only.  Near  the  Sublime  Porte  a  portion  of 
the  garrison  offered  a  determined  resistance,  which 
was  overcome  by  Niazi  Bey,  at  the  head  of  the 
Resna  battalion,  and  a  band  of  Macedonian  volun- 
teers. Some  of  the  guard-houses  had  to  be  taken 
at  the  point  of  the  bayonet.  The  entry  into  Stam.- 
boul  of  the  Parliamentary  troops  seems  to  have 
taken  a  great  part  of  the  garrison  by  surprise,  for 
Shevket  Pasha,  in  his  official  report,  states  that 
"the  troops  quartered  at  the  Ministry  of  War  were 
compelled  to  surrender  before  they  had  time  to  de- 
fend themselves." 

On  the  farther  side  of  the  Golden  Horn  the  fight- 
ing was  more  severe  than  in  Stamboul.  Shortly  after 
5  A.M.  firing  commenced  in  the  outskirts  of  Pera. 
The  Macedonian  troops  attacked  the  Taksim  and 
Tashkishla  barracks,  which  were  defended  in  most 
stubborn  manner  by  desperate  men  who  thought 
that  they  would  receive  no  mercy,  and  there  was 
fierce  street  fighting  in  the  European  quarter,  where 
the  guard-houses  were  bravely  held  by  the  mis- 
guided men  of  the  First  Army  Corps.  From  the 
Tashkishla  barracks  a  heavy  fire  was  opened  upon 
the  advancing  troops,  and  the  barracks  had  to  be 
shelled  and  almost  destroyed  by  the  artillery  on 
316 


THE    NEW    SULTAN 

the  heights  above,  before  the  garrison,  after  several 
hours'  fighting  and  heavy  losses,  surrendered. 

Equally  desperate  was  the  defence  of  the  Taxim 
barracks,  the  attack  on  which  was  led  by  Enver 
Bey.  This  young  officer,  who,  during  the  months 
that  preceded  the  revolution,  had  wandered,  dis- 
guised and  at  great  risk  to  his  life,  through  the 
Macedonian  garrison  towns,  and  there,  though  sur- 
rounded by  spies,  had  successfully  won  officers  and 
men  over  to  the  cause,  like  his  friend  Niazi  desired 
no  recognition  of  his  patriotic  work,  and,  modest  as 
he  is  able,  was  glad  to  accept  the  simple  post  of  mili- 
tary attache  at  Berlin.  Recalled  by  his  country's 
danger  when  the  counter-revolution  broke  out.  he 
joined  the  army  at  Salonica,  and  now,  on  April  24, 
he  was  leading  across  the  Taxim  Square  a  charge  of 
regular  troops  and  volunteers  —  Moslems,  Christians, 
and  Jews  —  fighting  shoulder  to  shoulder  against  a 
Moslem  foe,  a  strange  thing,  indeed,  to  come  about 
in  Turkey.  These  men  fought  splendidly  under  their 
young  leader,  but  so  deadly  a  fire  was  opened  upon 
them  from  the  loopholed  barracks  that  here,  too, 
artillery  had  to  be  employed  to  overpower  the  de- 
fence. Guns  were  dragged  up  the  steep,  narrow 
streets  by  the  willing  populace  and  opened  fire  at 
very  short  range  upon  the  barracks  and  the  Taxim 
guard-house.  Then  there  was  a  rush  of  the  Turks, 
Bulgarians,  and  white-capped  Albanians,  and  the 
defenders,  after  a  three  hours'  resistance,  which 
cost  the  attacking  force  many  casualties,  hoisted 
the  white  flag  and  surrendered. 
317 


TURKEY 

While  barracks  were  being  thus  assaulted,  and 
there  was  hand-to-hand  fighting  in  the  streets  of 
Pera,  the  commander-in-chief  of  the  Macedonian 
forces  had  made  most  careful  dispositions  to  pre- 
serve order  in  the  great  city  and  protect  the  civil- 
ian population.  A  detachment  of  troops  was  sent  to 
guard  each  embassy.  Bodies  of  regulars,  cadets  and 
volunteers  patrolled  the  streets  of  Pera  and  Galata, 
shooting  down  such  Marines  and  Kurds  as  were  at- 
tempting to  loot  the  shops,  and  making  prisoners  of 
all  the  soldiers  belonging  to  the  garrison  whom  they 
came  across.  In  Stamboul  the  troops  seized  hun- 
dreds of  spies,  softas  and  hodjas,  who,  after  stirring 
up  the  evil  passions  of  the  garrison  and  the  popu- 
lace, had  taken  refuge  in  the  mosques.  By  noon, 
quiet  had  been  restored  in  Constantinople,  and  in 
the  evening  the  troops  quartered  in  the  Selimieh 
barracks  at  Scutari  surrendered  to  the  Macedonian 
regiments  which  had  been  transported  across  the 
Bosphorus  to  compel  the  submission  of  these  men, 
and  to  intercept  fugitives  from  the  capital. 

These  operations  were  all  planned  and  carried  into 
execution  with  a  wonderful  skill.  The  discipline, 
courage,  and  irreproachable  conduct  of  the  Mace- 
donian troops  aroused  the  admiration  of  all  for- 
eign observers.  The  wild-looking  volunteers  from 
the  mountains  fought  as  bravely  as  the  regulars, 
and  their  behaviour  was  exemplary.  That  evening 
nearly  twenty  thousand  fighting  men,  flushed  with 
victory,  were  scattered  through  the  great  city,  and 
yet  there  appear  to  have  been  no  cases  of  drunk- 
318 


THE    NEW    SULTAN 

enness  or  irregularities  of  any  description.  It  was 
the  triumph  of  the  right  cause  —  the  cause  that 
represents  enhghtenment,  justice,  hberty,  and  true 
patriotism  —  as  opposed  to  tyranny,  corruption, 
fanaticism,  and  ignorance. 

The  capital  was  in  the  hands  of  the  Young 
Turks;  the  forces  of  reaction  had  been  crushed;  a 
state  of  siege  was  proclaimed;  some  thousands  of 
arrests  were  made;  the  more  guilty  received  the 
punishment  which  they  deserved,  and  the  others 
were  treated  with  leniency,  for,  while  justice  was 
administered,  anything  that  savoured  of  vengeance 
was  disallowed;  the  First  Army  Corps  was  dis- 
banded and  the  mutinous  soldiers  were  sent  to 
Macedonia,  to  be  employed  in  constructing  roads; 
Tewfik  Pasha  and  his  ministers  consented  to  carry 
on  the  government  provisionally. 

In  short,  the  Young  Turk  regime  was  firmly  re- 
established by  men  who  acted  with  discretion  and 
decision  after  a  crisis  that  perhaps  has  cleared  the 
atmosphere  and  effected  a  reconciliation  between 
such  political  foes  as  have  in  common  the  love 
of  country  and  the  determination  to  uphold  the 
Constitution. 

Early  in  the  morning  of  April  27  Reshad  Effendi 
left  his  residence,  the  Dolma  Baghche  Palace,  and 
drove  to  the  War  Office,  where  he  was  proclaimed 
Sultan  with  a  salvo  of  101  guns.  After  thirty-three 
years  of  luxurious  but  depressing  isolation  he  now 
changes  places  with  his  elder  brother,  the  former 
going  from  captivity  to  a  throne,  the  latter  from  a 
319 


TURKEY 

throne  to  captivity.  The  new  Sultan  is  an  amiable 
man,  beloved  by  his  entourage,  and  he  has  already 
produced  a  favourable  impression  on  such  foreigners 
as  have  been  received  by  him. 


320 


INDEX 


Aali  Pasha,  26. 

Aassim  Bey,  248. 

Abd-ul-Aziz,  accession  of,  25;  de- 
posed, 29. 

Abdul  Hamid,  accession  of,  30. 

Abdul  Houda,  205. 

Abd-ul-Mejid,  25. 

Administration  by  the  Young  Turks, 
214. 

Ahmed  Riza,  248;  and  the  Central 
Committee,  102;  in  London,  76,  78. 

Albania,  revolt  in,  66-70. 

Albanian  chiefs,  the,  154;  horrors,  22. 

Albanians  support  the  Committee, 
169-194. 

Ali  Bey,  69. 

Ameer  Ali,  61. 

Anatolian  troops,  169-184. 

Anti-Christian  feeling,  10. 

Animals,  kindness  to,  8. 

Army,  the,  40;  a  strong,  needed,  261, 
280;  and  the  Revolution,  113-115; 
discontent  in  the,  87-100;  and  the 
Committee,  224;  mutinous,  300; 
Young  Turks  and,  89-100. 

Astrologer  at  Court,  an,  205. 

Atrocities,  15-24. 

Austria's  annexations,  238;  trade,  boy- 
cott of,  218. 

"Awakening  of  Turkey,"  play,  257. 

"Bag  and  Baggage"  policy,  the,  21. 
Balance  of  Power,  the,  36. 
Bloodless  Victory,  a,  185,  197. 
Boer  War  and  the  Turks,  47. 


Bosnia,  annexation  of,  238;  risings  in, 

27. 
Boycott  of  Austrian  trade,  218. 
Brigands,  Macedonian,  18;  Turkish,  7. 
British,  hatred  of  the,  45. 
Biilgarian  Atrocities,  18;  insiu-rection, 

152-158. 
Bulgarians  and  Greeks,  93;  friendly, 

169-184. 

Camarilla,  dispersal  of,  232. 

Causes  of  revolt,  49. 

Censorship,  the,  41. 

Central  Committee,  the,  101, 117,119, 

132,  199,  224,  246. 
Characteristics  of  Turks,  5. 
Christian  propagandists,  94. 
Congress  at  Salonica,  252;  of  1907, 

85. 
Constantinople  after  the  revolt,  211. 
Constitution  granted,  205 ;  proclaimed, 

200;  suspended,  33. 
Corruption   in    Constantinople,    294; 

spread  of,  35-53. 
Counter,  revolution,  the,  297-320. 
Coup  (Tetat,  of  1876,  28. 
Crawford,  Mr.,  235. 
Customs,  reorganisation  of,  235. 
Czar,  the,  and  Edward  VII,  122. 

Death  of  Shimshi  Pasha,  168. 
Demonstrations,  209. 
Despotism,  final  efforts  of,  169-184. 
"Diary  of  a  Young  Turk,"  115. 
Discontent  in  the  Army,  87-100. 


321 


INDEX 


Dismemberment  of  Turkey,  1. 

Disunion,  299. 

Djavid  Bey,  248. 

Dogs  in  Constantinople,  8. 

Domination  of  the  Committee,  224. 

Early  Reformers,  25-34. 

Education,  spread  of,  54-63. 

Edward  VII  and  the  Tsar,  122;  con- 
gratulations from,  231. 

Elections,  the,  273-280. 

Electoral  law,  the,  270. 

Enemies  of  the  Young  Turks,  284. 

England  and  Turkey,  4;  friendship 
with,  229. 

Enver  Bey,  125,  130,  169,  248. 

European  assistance,  227-237;  influ- 
ence, 13. 

Exile  of  leaders,  31. 

Exiles,  return  of  the,  208. 

Eyoub  EfFendi,  188. 

Fair  Bey,  248. 

Fehim  Pasha,  42. 

Ferid  Pasha  dismissed,  204. 

Finances,  organisation  of,  235. 

Fraternising,  209. 

Freemasonry,  101. 

French  influence,  13. 

Fuad  Pasha,  26. 

Geneva,  Young  Turks  at,  72. 
German  influence,  45,  93,  295. 
Greek      influence,      253-277;     Patri- 
archate, Influence  of,  221. 
Greeks  and  Bulgarians,  93. 
Guards,  the  Palace,  238-248. 

Halil  Halid,  19. 
Hamidian  regime,  the,  35-53. 
Hatti-Sherif  of  Gulhane,  the,  25. 
Herzegovina,  annexation  of,  238;  ris- 
ings in,  27. 


Hilmi  Pasha,  202,  234. 
Hurriet,  newspaper,  the,  64. 

Ignatieff,  26. 

Influence,  European,  13;  German,  45, 

93,  295. 
Insurrection,   in   Bulgaria,   152,   158; 

the  Macedonian,  90. 
Intermarriage  with  Westerns,  57. 
Internal  dissensions,  281-296. 
Interregnum,  the,  222. 
Ismail  Pasha,  131. 
Istarova,  Niazi  at,  172. 

Japax-Russo  War,  influence  of,  54. 
Jews  and  the  Young  Turks,  83. 

Kemil  Bey,  poet,  57. 
Kermanle  Metre,  139. 
Kiamil  Pasha,  39,  230;  resignation  of, 

287. 

Labcha,  156. 
Laurent,  Monsieur,  235. 
Liberal  Union,  the,  290. 
Liberty  secured  for  all,  225. 
Literature,  Turkish,  13. 

ISIacedonia,  in  1908,  133;  pacifica- 
tion of,  227;  partition  of,  2. 

Macedonian  brigands,  18;  Commit- 
tees, 84;  insiu-rection,  90. 

Magna  Charta  of  Turkey,  the,  25. 

Mahmud  II,  25. 

Mahmud  Nedim  Pasha,  26-27. 

Manifesto  of  Central  Committee,  120. 

Mascot,  a,  191. 

Mehemet  Ali,  murder  of,  69. 

Midhat  Pasha,  premier,  26,  31;  exile 
and  death,  33. 

Military  and  the  Revolution,  113; 
condition  of  the,  50-53. 

Mohammedans  and  the  Committee, 
224. 


dn 


INDEX 


Monastir,  152;  capture  of,  192,  194; 

Vali  of,  169,  18i. 
Mongolians,  the,  5. 
Moslem  reformation,  the,  60. 
Murad  V,  29. 
Mussulman,  the,  5;  influence,  154. 

Nationalist  parties,  288. 

Navy,  decay  of  the,  36. 

Nazim  Bey,  Colonel,  sent  to  Salonica, 

127. 
Niazi   Bey,    133-138,    141;  called   to 
Ochrida,  185;  letters  of,  116;  re- 
volt of,  125;  work  in  Bulgaria, 
160;  at  Velijon,  166. 
manifesto,  164. 

Ochrida,  186;  the  march  on,  190. 
Osman  Pasha,  a  prisoner,  195. 
Ottoman  Committee,  the,  75-97. 

Palace,  corruption  at,  6;  and  the 
Greeks,  159-184. 

Pan-Islamic  schemes,  38. 

Pan-Islamism,  repudiated,  58. 

Paris,  Young  Turks  at,  72. 

Parliament,  dissolved,  65 ;  opening  of, 
281-296;  the  new,  249,  260,  276, 
280,  287. 

Parties  in  Parliament,  287. 

People,  the  Turkish,  1. 

Police,  secret,  42. 

Polygamy,  11. 

Poole,  Stanley  Lane,  13. 

Power,  the  balance  of,  36. 

Press,  liberty  of,  41 ;  and  the  Commit- 
tee, 224. 

Proclamation  to  the  Greeks,  182. 

Programme  of  Young  Turk  party,  261. 

Reactionary  intrigues,  239,  293. 
Reformation,  the  Moslem,  60. 
Reformers,  early,  25-34. 


Religious  questions,  9. 

Reshad  Efifendi  proclaimed  Sultan, 
819. 

Reshid  Pasha,  25. 

Resources,  development  of,  264. 

Revolt,  causes  of,  49;  standard  of, 
133. 

Revolution,  after  the,  207-221;  be- 
ginning of,  117-132;  of  1907,  54. 

Rise  of  the  Young  Turks,  64-86. 

Rizna,  the  rising  of,  146. 

Russia,  peace  of  1878,  33. 

Russian  influence,  16. 

Russo-Turkish  War,  the,  16. 

Sabah-ed-Din,  Prince,  76. 

Said  Pasha,  Grand  Vizier,  204,  229. 

Salonica,  Central  Committee  at,  103; 
Congress  at,  252;  Ottoman  Com- 
mittee at,  97-100. 

Sandansky,  king  of  the  mountains, 
211. 

Secret  police,  the,  42. 

Secret  proceedings,  105. 

Sefer  Bey,  30. 

Selamlik,  the,  243. 

Self-rule,  preparing  for,  249-260. 

Sheik-ul-Islam,  the,  11. 

Shimshi  Pasha,  126-152;  assassinated, 
168. 

Shura-i-Ummet  journal,  the,  248. 

"Sick  man  of  Europe,"  the,  21. 

"Silistria,"  the,  57. 

Softas,  the,  28. 

Spies  in  Turkey,  20;  system  of,  41,  44, 
66. 

Spread  of  Corruption,  the,  35-53. 

Spread  of  Education,  54-63. 

Spy  system,  the  military,  89. 

Standard  of  Revolt,  the,  133-151. 

"Story  of  the  Nations,"  the,  13. 

Sultan,  character  of  the,  37;  the  new, 
297-320. 


323 


INDEX 


Taxation,  re-adjustment  of,  265. 
Theatre,  influence  of  the,  257. 
Tolerance  of  the  Young  Turks,  59. 
Treachery  against  Turkey,  3. 
Troops,  the  palace,  242. 
Tsar,  the,  and  Edward  VII,  122. 

Ulemas,  the,  11,  61. 

Ultimatum  of  the  Committee,   198- 

206. 
Union  and  Progress,   Committee  of, 

261,  280,  284. 
"Unspeakable  Turks,"  the,  15. 

Vali  of  Monastir,  the,  169, 184. 


Velijon,  Niazi  at,  166. 
Victory,  a  Bloodless,  185-197. 
Von  der  Goltz,  Baron,  103. 

Western  ideas,  influence  of,  56. 
Whittall,  Sir  William,  7. 
Women,    in    the    Revolution,     112; 
status  of,  12. 

YiLDiz  soldiers,  the,  239. 

Young  Turk  party,  the,  3,  55,  59-63, 
86;  programme,  261;  movement  of, 
79;  administration  by,  214;  rise  of 
the,  64-86. 


324 


YD   I  172 


.       ^e  last  date  stamped  below,  or 


